A Change in Our Future
by Kayotics
Summary: Kagome makes a mistake that changes the modern era drastically. Soon she finds out that demons and halfdemons are slaves in her era! Can Kagome change everything back, and will InuYasha help her through it?
1. Kagome's Mistake

Hello there! I'm back and ready to go! This is a brand new story, all fresh for you to read. I think it's an original concept, but if it isn't, oh well! At least I tried. Heh. ; Well, I hope you like it and keep reading. I want you to READ! It's written in Kagome's first-person perspective. Just so you know.

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**A Change in Our Future**

Chapter One: Kagome's Mistake

I always felt sort of useless in these battles. The only one worse than me was Shippo, but he could get better with age. Not me. InuYasha has his claws and Tetsuiga. Sango has the Hiraikotsu, hidden weapons and Kirara. Miroku has his staff, sacred sutras and the Wind Tunnel... What do I have?

I have bow that people love to hit out of my hand and throw across the forest. Hell, that's happened too many times to count!

We were fighting a demon. He was a big ugly one with horrible fumes coming out of his skin where holes were. Those holes liked to spurt out pussy goo every so often, making a mess and dissolving plants and anything it touched. Did I say it smells really, really bad? Well, it smells bad. He also had tiny black eyes and slimy skin. And huge claws... But he's slow.

InuYasha took out his sword and tried to slice through the skin, but it didn't work! Stupid! Yeah, InuYasha cut through it, but it just re-grew because the skin was just a goopy mess! Yuck! Why did we have to fight all the nasty demons?

Sango tried to harm it with her giant boomerang, but it just got stuck and the demon ejected it back at Sango! "Sango-chan!" I yelled, starting to run over to my friend. If I couldn't fight I could still help my friends when they're hurt.

"Kagome! Look out!" InuYasha yelled. Maybe I couldn't help my friends out. InuYasha landed in front of me, his silky silver hair flowing behind him. It was slightly covered in blood, but it was still as beautiful as ever.

"Kagome!" I snapped out of my daze. "Quit day dreamin' and get out of here! Go get your bow!" InuYasha said, holding back the claws that were once heading towards me. I nodded and ran over to where the bow landed... But the place where it landed was in an area with really tall grass... Damn.

I searched for a while, every so often looking back to the battle raging behind me. Suddenly my finger hit something hard and I picked it up. Yay! The very thing I-- It's a rock...

I threw it behind me and it hit the ground with a thud as I continued to search for the bow. Soon I found it, jumping up and yelling out, "Yes!" I'm still amazed by how I could find it.

I ran over to the battle and held out my bow. I grabbed an arrow from my back and held it, getting ready to shoot. I just needed to align it just right. I could do it much faster, and I knew I was going to hit it anyway... I just needed to make sure. I pulled it back, hearing the sound of the string on the bow stretching. I poured my priestess energy into the arrow and I let go, the arrow cutting through the air and going through the demon's body. The demon instantly dissipated, but I gasped as I saw what was behind it.

Everything was a blur... I remember running, and a blood-curdling scream. My legs seemed to be moving in slow motion. Blood was on the ground... I know that because I kneeled in it.

I shot something...

More than that... I shot a man.

My hand was shaky as I reached out and touched his heart, knowing that it was still beating already. His chest moved up and down as he breathed, though it quivered as much as the hand that I reached out to him. The others seemed to just stand there, looking at him... _My_ arrow stuck in his stomach... A wound I inflicted on him pouring out blood. Tears streamed down my face as I shouted to the others, not hearing my own voice.

A village was nearby. I know that because they hired us to destroy the demon that attacked their crops by night. InuYasha picked up the man and ran him to the village ahead of us, and I followed, running faster than I have ever ran before. Heck, I was pretty much keeping up with Kirara... But I'm not sure if they were slowing down for me... It didn't feel like it, though.

By the time I got to the village my legs burned. I couldn't remember the last time I ran that fast for such a distance. I've run a lot since I came to Feudal Japan, but not like that. I followed my instincts and managed to find the hut where InuYasha brought the man. Obviously InuYasha brought the man to the village healer, but I didn't know where she lived...

"Why did you take so long? Did you run the whole way or what?" InuYasha growled at me.

I could feel my face heat up. "Yes..." I muttered before looking at the man again. My arrow was still in his gut. My hands started shaking again and I looked at InuYasha. "How is he?"

"I don't think he's doing too well. He is having trouble breathing," InuYasha explained. I almost ran over to the man on the bed and I looked at him as he struggled for breath. Sweat formed on his face and fell down into his hair.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked the healer, my hands shaking.

"Have you ever done anything like this before?" She sounded uncertain... I knew my voice was shaking a little bit too. I couldn't help it... I just shot a man! I could feel tears start to well up in my eyes and my vision started to distort around the bottom.

"Y-yes," I said, my voice shaking even more.

"You don't sound so certain," the healer said to me as I looked around and spotted my backpack. I suppose InuYasha brought it in here. Sometimes he was so considerate. Bringing my bag in here... But he probably brought it to make sure he would get his ramen. I'm almost positive that he did it for that reason.

"She was the one who shot him. The arrow went through the demon we were fighting and straight into his gut," InuYasha explained bluntly. He looked over to me as I cringed slightly at his words. "It was an accident, Kagome." InuYasha's voice was calm and kind. You could hear a bit of sympathy in his voice. He was being kind? He was actually sympathetic of me? How could he be? Not to be insensitive or anything, but he had killed before... Even humans. Not lately. No... Why was that? Had his human side started to take a toll on his feelings and actions? InuYasha pulled me out of my train of thought by saying, "I brought you your bag from the headman's house. You have everything you need to help this guy out. I'm going to go get some water to help."

Maybe InuYasha _was_ being sympathetic...

I looked over to the man and my ability to think straight came back to me. I went over to my bag and dragged out my first-aid kit. I don't like the first-aid kit... It feels bulky and such. Oh well. It has helped us all more than once.

I rushed over to the man I had shot in the stomach and I looked at the arrow. I knew I had to take it out, but this was going to be the bad part. Who really wants to pull out an arrow? I moved the healer aside a bit and she went to get her herbs and stuff. You could see that she was obviously curious about my methods... I opened up the kit and set it on his legs. I knew that he would start bleeding more once I pulled my arrow out... But...

Too late! I already did it. I pulled off the harori and sprayed some disinfectant on the wound. He seemed to wince a bit, but I didn't look at his face. I was too occupied with wraping the wound up. I didn't notice that InuYasha had come back until I pushed some hair out of my eyes and heard him talking to the healer about my first-aid kit. I finished wraping the wound and put away the things in the kit.

"Are you done?" the healer asked as I went over to my backpack and shoved my kit inside. I nodded immediately, my head bobbing up and down like one of those giant bobber head things that you see in stores sometimes, but have no real purpose but to sit on your car dashboard and look stupid.

I knew the healer was going to give the man some herbs to help him get better, but I couldn't look at him now. I had to talk to InuYasha. It didn't really make sense that I walked outside, then, but I knew he would follow me. I walked towards the river, which was a small way outside of the village. I took off my shoes and socks and walked into the river and started washing my hands.

"InuYasha..." I said, my voice quiet. I was glad that the river was very quiet. I turned around and stood there in the river, waiting to see what he was going to do. He sat down on the bank and I walked over to him. I took my seat next to him and leaned against his shoulder. The tears started falling down before I was able to stop them. "I-I shot a p-p-person with my arrow! Y-you may n-not know it, b-but you've been so sup-portive..." I couldn't even see anymore and I kept hiccupping. InuYasha just looked at me. "D-d-do you think he's g-going to d-die?" My eyes were blurry and I couldn't see three feet in front of me.

InuYasha looked at me with a sad look... I couldn't see it though because of the tears that continued to stream down my cheeks and my eyes were looking towards the river. "No. I don't think he's going to die," InuYasha said. I wish I had known he could smell the scent of death coming from the man I had just helped. What if he lived? Would he forgive me?

I voiced my question and asked, "If he lives, do you think he will forgive me?"

"If he's not a mean jackass, then I'm sure he will," InuYasha told me. He made me smile and I hugged him around the waist.

"Thank you, InuYasha," I said quietly.

InuYasha put an arm around me and I wiped away the tears in my eyes. "Let's go see how he's doing... And find out where Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kirara are."

InuYasha led me back towards the village and I felt good inside. What had gotten into him? He was acting so nice and supportive. He didn't even try and deny it!

InuYasha let go of me in the village and through my puffy red eyes I saw Sango and Miroku in the distance.

"Where the hell were you?" InuYasha yelled at them. Yes, he was back. I won't expect that supportive InuYasha again, but it would be nice. I smiled knowing that he was acting like himself again, tough and a bit insecure.

"We were getting our pay for defeating the demon!" Miroku answered. Sango sent him a glare. I smiled... I knew what those secret looks meant. She loved him, though. I can tell.

"Miroku! We went to make sure everyone was OK before we went to check on... him..." Sango said. Shippo popped up from behind Sango's shoulder and ran over to me, jumping up to my shoulder also. He looked at me sympathetically and snuggled into my shoulder.

"Kagome... Were you crying? I smell tears," Shippo said, looking at me carefully. I smiled at him and nodded slightly. I had no idea that he had such a good nose. I knew he could smell scents, but he didn't seem to smell things very often, or tell what he knows.

Miroku scratched the back of his head and looked at me. "Should we go check up on...?"

"The man I shot?" I looked up in the sky past everyone's head. No one looked at me then, except for InuYasha. I smiled slightly, but it wasn't real. I knew they could tell. I could tell it was a false smile. Shippo looked at me sadly and I knew what he was thinking. He was feeling bad for me.

InuYasha started to walk towards the healer's house and I followed him, Shippo sitting on my shoulder. We walked inside and I looked over to the person laying there, his wounds covered up by my first-aid stuff and those bandages.

Suddenly, as Sango and Miroku walked in, his eyes slowly opened. They were dark green, void of any emotion besides pain and fear. I stared into them, and he stared into mine... It felt like his eyes were digging into my mind... Into my soul. I felt cold. His eyes seemed to be holding death in them...

He stared at me for a little bit longer before saying, "Where am I?"

We stood still for a while before I couldn't stand it anymore. It was too tense! I stepped forward and looked at him carefully. "You're in a healer's hut. You were shot with my arrow."

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Thank you for reading the first chapter, and I would like you to read the second one! Yay! I love writing. Please stay tuned and read the second chapter when I get it up! This chapter was sort of short. Heh. Oh well. I hope my next chapter will be longer, I hope.

**Next Chapter:** Will the wounds inflicted by Kagome's arrow cause more harm, or will she be able to help him with her modern medicine?


	2. Kane's Story

Here's chapter two, where we find out about this person that Kagome shot and what will happen to him.

**NOTE:** Some people were confused on why the story didn't start out with the plot right away. Let me just tell you that next chapter will the beginning of the plot really show. Just so you know.

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**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Two: Kane's Story**

Where were we? Oh yeah. "You're in a healer's hut. You were shot with my arrow." I looked at the man carefully and he looked back. Those eyes creeped me out.

Surprisingly, he smirked! I had just told him that I shot him with my arrow, and he's _smirking_! What is with him? My eyebrows furrowed a little bit and InuYasha sat down against the wall. The others seemed to get comfortable, but I wouldn't allow myself to. I was standing in front of the person I just shot with an arrow!

"Did you fix my wound?" he asked, looking at me. I nodded.

"The healer gave you some herbs to help," I said, being modest.

"You fixed my wounds, though?" I nodded once more. "Thank you very much, miss..."

"My name is Kagome," I answered him, nodding once more, amazed that he is thanking me after I shot him. Yeah, I know you all get that I shot him... But would you be prancing around happily after you shot a guy in the gut with a sacred arrow? OK, maybe some of you would, but not me! I felt horrible. If he was a horrible person and I had meant to hit him, maybe I wouldn't have felt as bad, but this was just awful.

"I am Kane, a traveling demon slayer," said the man laying on the bed, looking around at all of us as best he could.

"A demon slayer!" Sango said, startled. She got up and walked over next to me, gripping onto my arm. You could tell she was curious and slightly afraid about what he would say next. "Did you live in the demon slayers village?" Sango asked. If he lived in her village, wouldn't you think that Sango would find him slightly familiar? Her father was pretty much the leader, from what I know.

"I lived in the demon slayer village in the west before I left to help other people. I can see you lived in one of them also. Your weapon is from the village that was destroyed, wasn't it?" Kane asked. Sango looked at the ground and nodded. I felt bad for her and her loss. She lost her village and her family. I didn't know what that felt like. The only hardship I've ever had to face was going through the well. "I feel bad for your village." Sango nodded once more.

"Why don't you all sit down?" Kane suggested, breathing in deeply. I sat with Sango sitting next to me. I looked at the ground, not being able to take those green eyes anymore.

"As I said, I lived in a demon slayer village to the west. As I became stronger the demons became scarce. Soon there were none trying to attack our area and village. I remained undefeated by any demon and I traveled around the lands to help other people and villages, destroying any demons in my way.

"I soon came upon a small village with a very powerful priestess. Though she was old, she knew many things and was very talented. She told me I must go defeat a demon in the east, for most of the sacred jewel was held by him. I followed the priestess's advice and started traveling to the east, stopping by towns along the way to help with any demon problems.

"That's when I came near this town. Isn't it ironic that I was untouchable by demons, but the arrow of a human is the thing that has brought me to death?" Kane said, smirking a little bit. I was crying, the tears not stopping for anything. I couldn't take it. I harmed him, and now he was going to die because of me.

"Kagome... I do not blame you for these circumstances. It's not your fault that I am here. Fate has brought me to this place..." I was shaking from the tears. I couldn't stand it anymore! Why was he being so kind to me? I shot him! I am going to be the cause of his death! "Kagome... Don't be so hard on yourself. You couldn't see me... But..."

I looked up, and through teary eyes I could see him looking at the ceiling.

"You must make sure to defeat the demon. I'm sure you've heard of him... Naraku," Kane said, looking back at everyone.

"Y-yes... We're... l-looking for him also..." I said, having trouble talking with the tears still coming down my face.

"Good. You must be more familiar with him... I can see that all of your expressions changed when I said his name... You must all be certain to kill him, or doom will fall upon this land for years to come," Kane explained, his voice slowly growing weaker. Everyone gasped, and my tears slowed slightly as I thought of my home changing because Naraku was still alive.

The demon slayer breathed in deeply and closed his eyes. His breathing became slower. He opened an eye and looked at me, smirking slightly. "I actually... couldn't handle... being everyone's hero anymore... Thank you, Kagome, for being my hero," Kane said, before closing his eyes and leaning back greatly. The tears down my face stopped, leaving red eyes behind. I saw a small wince of pain in Kane's face before his breathing stopped altogether.

"The smell of death has completely overpowered his normal scent," InuYasha said simply. Thanks for sugarcoating it, InuYasha. Note the sarcasm.

I bit my lip. "He's dead," Shippo said. That's why I love him. He never misses a thing. Of course, I wasn't thinking that at the time. No sound escaped my mouth, but I shook violently and tears started to fall down my face. I had killed this man, and he wasn't even angry with me! He had learned how to be forgiving, even at the brink of death. I could never be like that. I am not like him. He is a great person, but how can I be his hero? I just killed him. It would be easier to handle if he hated me, if he wanted to hurt me for killing him. But he didn't. He didn't want to hurt me; he wanted to thank me.

I was his hero.

And now he's dead.

_I_ killed him.

And _I_ am his hero.

I'm sorry, but how can you get over killing a person who thanked you?

I didn't even realize when InuYasha lifted me up and brought me over to a cot as Miroku covered Kane's body and said a prayer. I didn't realize until the next day that I cried into InuYasha's haori until I fell asleep and InuYasha put me down on the cot and covered me with a blanket from by backpack. He was being very kind... Did he understand what I was going through?

I wish I could thank him properly... But... Oh, crap, I can feel my face turning red!

I woke up during the middle of the night, comfortably warm with the blanket tucked up to my chin. I saw InuYasha asleep a few feet away from me, sitting up with his arms inside his sleeves. I smiled slightly, just so slightly, and a tear fell down my cheek.

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That is the chapter. I hope you liked it. What will Kagome do? Will the guilt of killing Kane weigh down on her too much, or will she feel better after a while?

**Next Chapter:** Kagome's mind is stuck on Kane, and this is effecting the whole group. But how much _will_ it effect the group, and in what ways?


	3. Kagome's Surprise

Well, now you all get to see what happens next. Congratulations.

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**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Three: Kagome's Surprise**

I fell asleep a few minutes after I woke up in the middle of the night. I was so warm with the blankets tucked up under my chin. Even though all the troubling things that I went through were fresh in my memory, I slept very well. Though, I did have a couple bad dreams... That's why I woke up in the middle of the night.

Well, anyway... I woke up a while later, after it seemed that everyone had left the hut. I slowly sat up and pushed hair out of my face. No one was there... except for the covered body. I knew that we were going to have a funeral soon. We have to bury the body.

I got up and walked outside, the sun shining onto my face. My eyes felt sore and stingy from crying the other day. They hurt like I put a little bit of soap into them. Soap hurts. I looked around and saw silver hair shining in the distance. InuYasha. I walked over there, not knowing what he was doing. Did he know how much he helped me the other day? I wish he did... but I am much to shy to say anything about that. I couldn't do that.

I walked over to InuYasha and he turned around, knowing I was there. He probably smelt me or something. "Kagome..." InuYasha said, looking at me carefully. I blinked a couple times and looked at the ground. "We're going to bury him in a little while. We found a spot in the graveyard near the forest."

"InuYasha... After we... bury him... I would like to go home and rest for a little while... all right?" I asked, hesitant on what he would say.

InuYasha nodded and said, "That would be for the best. You need to take care of yourself and rest for a while."

The rest of the day went by slowly, and soon we were burying him. Miroku knelt down next to his grave and said a small prayer, and I sat down next to the burial spot also, holding onto a small bouquet of flowers. After Miroku said his prayer, I put the bouquet on the grave. InuYasha saw sun glint off of something in the group of flowers, and looked at me. Yeah. I put the arrow in the flowers. Weird, right? Well, who cares what you think! I didn't need the arrow anyway...

"Come on. Let's go," InuYasha said, turning around quickly. Sango and Miroku quickly followed, and soon Shippo went after them. "Come on, Kagome!" InuYasha yelled at me, and I slowly got up and turned around, following the others.

We left the village promptly and started to walk towards Kaede's village. It was a ways away, so we would be walking for a while. Hopefully we wouldn't run into any demons on the way. I hope not. I don't want to do anything at the moment, except leave...

I hardly remember what we were doing or where we were when we were attacked by a demon. I just remember Shippo screaming and jumping up on my shoulder, my backpack falling on the ground and I snapped out of a trance I seemed to be in. I looked around and realized I had my bow and arrow with me. I took my bow and gasped when the demon (who was a gross green color and screamed really loudly) flew towards me, looking a lot like a dragon. I jumped out of the way and it flew away, and went towards InuYasha, holding one of it's giant claws out. I got an arrow and fumbled with it before pulling it back on the string. Sango threw her boomerang, though it was knocked aside by the demon's giant tail. The tail went all over the place, and it hit Miroku and Sango, knocking them against the trees and rendering them unconscious. "Sango! Miroku!" yelled out Shippo, as he ran over to them to help.

The demon had InuYasha held against a tree by his neck. I pulled on the arrow and almost let go, until the memory of shooting Kane in the stomach hit me hard. I stood there, hesitating, before InuYasha shouted at me. "Kagome! Shoot it!" My eyes widened and I aimed, before letting go of the arrow. It went straight through the demon's head, making the demon turn into ash and let go of InuYasha. InuYasha dropped to the ground and looked at me. I swear I could see a little bit of disappointment in his eyes. I looked at the ground, not being able to take his stare. "Kagome?"

InuYasha looked at me and walked over to where I was standing. He turned around and looked at Shippo. "Shippo, protect Miroku and Sango until they wake up. Tell them I took Kagome ahead to bring her to her home," InuYasha explained. I picked up my backpack from the ground and walked over to InuYasha, who crouched down so I could get on his back. Shippo started to whine, but InuYasha instantly started to run once I was on his back. He almost flew all the way, jumping on top of trees and speeding through the air.

Though he usually didn't talk while he was running, he decided to this time. "Kagome, I think the guilt is getting to you. You need to forget about it," InuYasha said. I nodded, but I didn't really understand what he was saying. It didn't really mean anything to me.

Soon InuYasha landed softly on the ground, and I looked around. We were a little ways away from the Bone-Eater's Well. I jumped off of InuYasha's back and started to walk towards the well.

"You better hurry up, woman! I can't wait forever," InuYasha said. I stopped and smiled slightly. I went over to the well and jumped in, letting my body relax as I flew through the well.

I landed on the bottom of the well and climbed up using the latter there. I'm glad I put that latter there. It makes it so much easier. I wish that everything could be that easy.

I got out of the well and walked outside, breathing in deeply. I sighed. This air wasn't nearly as fresh as the air in the feudal era. I got a little bit of a headache from it now. I put my hand to my forehead and then heard a little meow. It must be Buyo. Hm. I love that cat. I looked down and gasped in surprise.

This wasn't like any cat I'd seen in this era... This looked a lot like Kirara... Except she had three tails instead of two. Otherwise, she looked exactly like Kirara. I looked at her, and she looked at me. I blinked a couple times and almost fainted. There were no demons in my era!

I ran over to the house, the cat demon following me, and I ran inside. "MOM! WHAT IS GOING ON?" I shouted, almost shaking the whole house.

My mom walked into the room, slightly startled at my sudden outburst and appearance.

"Why, Kagome! You're back... But what's wrong?" Mama asked, looking at me carefully. I pointed at the three-tailed cat. "Oh."

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HOLY CRAP OH MY GOD HOLY HELL WHY IS THERE A DEMON! oO;;; You get to find that out in the next chapter.

Sorry the chapter was short. It had long paragraphs, but it was only three pages! Well, I had these chapters planned out before hand, so I cant be too angry at myself.

**Next Chapter:** Why is there a demon in Kagome's era! You get to find that out, like I said in the last two sentences! OMFG!


	4. Mama's Explaination

To be, or not to be. That is the question. What I should be is a cow... Actually, that'd be weird. Being a cow.

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? Say that to someone.

E.T. doesn't stand for what you think it stands for. It stands for Extra Testicle. Yes. Anyway, since I have nothing to put here, might as well get on with the chapter.

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**A Change in Our Future**

Chapter Four: Mama's Explaination

I stood there, pointing at the three-tailed cat demon, waiting for my mom to answer my question. She just stood there, staring at me with wide eyes.

"WHY IS THERE A DEMON IN THE HOUSE? Or anywhere, for that matter?" I shouted, glaring at my mother. OK, I may have been overreacting, but what would you think if you found a demon in your yard?

Mama walked over to me and touched me softly on the back. It calmed me down, and she led me over to the couch. I sat down, turning to look at her, and she sat down so she was facing me. Mama sighed and moved her hand to my shoulder.

"Honey... I don't know how to say this... While you were gone... Actually, not too long before you arrived today, demons started appearing. But, it seemed like only our family noticed that they were here. Everyone I ask seems to think that demons have always been here. And... there are even a few ne businesses. Like the Demon Hunters," Mama explained.

I gasped. "WHAT?" Mama nodded. "D-demon Hunters? What exactly do they do?"

"They hunt demons, of course."

"I know that, Mom. I can tell by their name. I want to know what they do," I said. I moved some of my hair out of my eyes and listened as my mom started explaining again.

"Well, the Demon Hunters were made because demons are slaves here. They are controlled by very powerful electric collars, that weakens them greatly and prevents them from attacking humans. The Demon Hunters thinks it protects the demons and us, but it hurts the demons. And don't forget... With a big population, and tons of sick people, there are quite a few half-demons. They are also enslaved," Mama said. I gasped. What about InuYasha? He'll probably come here to bring me back to the Feudal Era! What if he gets captured? No... He'll be fine, I'm sure of it.

"Why don't you get some rest. I'm sure that this is a lot for you to take in," Mama said to me. I nodded and stood up to go to bed. It was getting late, anyway.

I went upstairs and opened my bedroom door. The familiar smell of my room came to me, and I looked around. It was clean, and no dust had formed. Mama must have kept dusting in here while I was gone. I walked over to my closet and changed into some pajamas, and then crawled into my nice, soft bed. It was nice to sleep in my old bed again. Though sleeping under the stars is nice, this is nice too.

- - -

I woke up early and let out a big yawn. I stretched and looked around, feeling refreshed and rested. I got out of bed and looked at my clock. Wow, I woke up early! There was still plenty of time to get ready for school. I got dressed and went downstairs, seeing Sota and Grandpa at the kitchen table. I guess mom hadn't told them that I was back, by the looks on their faces.

"Good morning, Kagome," Mama said to me as she set a plate on the table for me.

"Morning, Mom," I said, walking over to my plate. "Thank you." I picked up my chop sticks and started eating. Grandpa and Sota were looking at me. I could just tell. I couldn't see their faces, but I could feel their eyes.

"When did you get home, Kagome?" Grandpa asked.

"Yesterday afternoon," I said between bites. Oh, I missed having meals made for me, and this was really good...

"Really?" Sota said, looking at me carefully. I blinked a couple times and looked at Sota.

"Yes..."

Sota looked at his food, like he was thinking hard, and then back to me. He asked me, "Where's InuYasha?"

I glared at Sota. "Aren't you happy that I'm back?"

"YES! Of course I am! I'm just wondering about InuYasha..." Sota said, looking worried. I could see where he was coming from.

I smiled. "InuYasha is safe back in the Feudal Era." I shoved another piece of food in my mouth and swallowed it, before standing up and bringing my dishes to the sink. "Sota, hurry up or you'll be late for school."

"All right, Sis."

I went to get my backpack and said goodbye to my family before heading out to school. I ran down the front steps and started walking to the school, my smile fading as I noticed how people were walking around with demons carrying bags or other things.

Why did this have to happen? And how?

I stopped when I heard a soft meow behind me. Was it that same demon that I saw when I first got here? I turned around and blinked. It was that demon. Her three tails stuck up in the air, and her big red eyes stared up at me, like she was expecting something. I sighed. How could I refuse a face like that? And she looked so much like Kirara that I couldn't stand it.

"You can come with me... I don't know what will happen, but you can come with me." I turned around and felt a light weight on my shoulder. I knew she'd come with me. Wonder if I should name the cat?

I walked the familiar path to the school and was soon walking on the school grounds.

"KAGOME!" I turned at the sound of my name, and saw my friends coming towards me. I should have known.

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi all looked excited to see me. I put on a fake smile and greeted them pleasantly. "I'm so glad that you're better, Kagome!" Eri said brightly.

"Are you sure that you are well enough to be here, Kagome?" Ayumi asked, honestly concerned.

"I'm fine, guys!" I said, holding up my hands. Honestly! They really bought all those lies that my grandpa gave them? How could they believe that? Fools.

"Is that a cat demon on your shoulder?" Yuka asked me, pointing at the cat.

"Oh, yeah. She followed me here," I explained, scratching the back of my head lightly.

The girls looked at the cat, and Ayumi looked like she just wanted to hug it because it was so cute. "What's it's name?" Ayumi asked.

I looked at it and then back at Ayumi. "I don't know. She just... followed me."

"Demons always seem to be attracted to you, Kagome! It seems like every week that you're bringing a demon to school... At least every week that you're here," Eri said. The other two girls laughed and I smiled lightly. It's like the past has changed, but I don't remember anything different.

"I am?" I asked, looking around at the group.

"Oh, yeah... Your grandpa said that you suffered a little bit of amnesia," Yuka said to me, and I looked at her strangely. How can you suffer from a _little bit_ of amnesia? My friends seem more gullible each time I see them. But, of course, they completely trusted my grandfather, so why wouldn't they believe him?

I walked towards the school, followed by my friends. "I hope you can catch up in all of your classes, Kagome," Eri said, setting her hand on my shoulder. I nodded. I hoped so too.

I walked inside and went to my classroom, getting my books out for the first class. I opened to the page on the board as the bell rang and the class sat down. "Sit down class! Today we're going to study the i Sengoku Jidai /i , or the Warring States Era." The teacher got out her book and opened to the page on the board.

"The first written proof of demons is from the _Sengoku Jidai_, where demons would run amok in the wild and destroy whole villages. Monks would write scriptures and illustrate pictures describing these demons. Some would have grotesque features, but other demons were more beautiful than any known human," she explained. I turned the page and gasped.

"InuYasha!" I whispered aloud. Though, it was loud enough for the class to hear me.

"Did you have anything to say, Miss Higurashi?" the teacher asked. I blushed and looked at the page.

"What's wrong, Kagome?" Yuka asked me. I just gaped at the picture. It was a picture of InuYasha... And there were a few other pictures there too!

The teacher smiled. "Well, Higurashi, I wouldn't be surprised if you knew the legend of InuYasha. If you read under the picture..."

"MIROKU!" I shouted. I instantly shoved my face into the book to read underneath the picture. It said:

Dog-Demon_, a painting based on a demon that was very well known, was done by a monk named Miroku. Miroku also did many other paintings based on famous people from that time. Legend says that he was in league with the demon in this painting._ I was stunned. My friends got in the history books? There were legends about them?

Then I saw it. A picture named _Priestess Kagome_. I stared at the page shocked. It looked exactly like me!

People looked on the page too, and soon they were all looking at me. I just stared at the picture... I'm glad that I'm wearing a priestess' outfit in the picture... Or else the gig would be up!

The class looked at the picture, and then at me. It was like they were all the same person. I wonder if I could keep this book. If I'm not there at the end of the year, I'd be able to. Well, it doesn't matter. Right now I just need to get through this school day.

* * *

Well, that was interesting. Now we must find out what will happen. More waiting.

This story should have 25 chapters. I should really start writing them more.

**Next Chapter:** InuYasha gets bored and comes to the modern era, but what dangers will that bring to him and Kagome?


	5. InuYasha's Battle

Last chapter explained a bit, didn't it? Hm... But why are there demons? You'll have to wait to see.

Ah, my life is boring. At least I don't have any tests going on. I'm pretty sure I won't have any this year, for 8th grade... I might, though. That'll suck.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Five: InuYasha's Battle**

While I was at school, InuYasha sat in a tree outside the village in the Feudal Era. He watched as Sango and Miroku walked outside of Kaede's hut, going into town. Shippo followed them, but only to stop when he saw a cute girl nearby. I just knew that InuYasha was thinking something along the lines of 'stupid kid picked up the habit from that lecher, Miroku.' Of course, I agreed with him, but I would never say that.

InuYasha sighed and looked towards the well. Ah, yes, the well. He couldn't see it from here, but he knew it was there. He had been there enough times to know exactly what direction it was from almost any place he was at.

InuYasha, bored as he was, wouldn't let it on that he was bored... Though, I knew he was bored because he went towards the Go-Shinboku and sat in the tree, watching the well. Sango has told me all about InuYasha watching the well, waiting for me to come back. It's sort of cute how he does that.

Though, soon enough he became very impatient and tired of waiting. Fed up with watching the well, he jumped out of the tree and inside it.

I'm sure that you can guess InuYasha was surprised when he smelt the scent of demon all over my era. He growled and bolted out of the building, smelling the air, as much as he would hate to. Along with the usual pollution, he smelt the stench of so many demons. They were all over the place! Knowing him, he growled and set off to my school to find me.

- - -

I sat in my desk, looking out the window sadly. It was about to storm. I could see the clouds accumulating in the sky, growing darker and gloomier. That's exactly how I felt. First I kill a man and now demons are running around in my era.

Suddenly I saw a flash of red and white. Speaking of demons... It couldn't be him, could it? No... He wouldn't be here. But if he were here then he would know all about the demons just with a simple whiff of air.

I relaxed a few minutes after that, seeing as I didn't see any more flashes of white or red or whatever.

I desperately hoped that he wasn't there.

Life really isn't fair now, is it?

- - -

InuYasha jumped once more to land near a building near my school. A drop of rain hit him on the nose, but he didn't care. He looked at my school with his golden eyes, carefully examining the surroundings.

Suddenly he jumped from the building he was standing on, into my schoolyard. He started to walk towards the school entrance but stopped at the sound of a voice.

"Inu Hanyou, 300 plus years old, not registered. Intelligence: unknown, strength: unknown, defense: unknown, heritage: unknown. May be a threat to humanity." InuYasha turned around and growled. In front of him was a man in a black uniform with black sunglasses. Behind him was a truck with a couple more men in uniforms, and a woman. "Shows hostility."

InuYasha growled some more. "Who're you?"

"Shows ignorance," said the man.

"Answer my question!" InuYasha shouted.

The man smirked. "I am one of the elite. I am from a group called the Demon Hunters," the man said. InuYasha growled some more. He wasn't exactly happy to hear that this man hunted demons. I had a lot of explaining to do.

InuYasha gripped his sword, to steady his anger, and glared at the man.

"I don't know what you want, but I'm here for someone," InuYasha said.

The Demon Hunter took a few steps forward. "Waiting for someone how? Are you going to ambush them, or are you an unregistered slave?" he asked. Now he'd done it.

"SLAVE!" InuYasha shouted, his eyes shining with anger. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SLAVE? I'm nobody's slave!"

"Then you're wild. You must be tamed, and you must be captured," the man said, bringing up a gun from his side. I would have been terrified... Too bad I was ignorant of this whole ordeal, even though I was only a few hundred feet away.

InuYasha just glared and kept his cool. He gripped his hand around the Tetsusaiga tighter and then ripped it out of its place, transforming it into InuYasha's father's fang. "Just try me," InuYasha said, being the tough guy he is.

- - -

And during that exciting battle outside, I was sitting inside the school as the rain started to pour down from the sky. The city soon became covered in rain, and people ran to their designated places, covering themselves with newspapers or whatever they had with them. Well, the rain was sort of sudden. The storm did move in very quickly.

I heard something near me, and looked down. It was the three-tailed cat. Had she come into the school with me? I couldn't remember if she did or not. I guess she did, since she's right there in front of me. The cat meowed once more and then jumped up to the window.

"HIGURASHI!" yelled the teacher. It was obviously a different teacher then last time, because time had lapsed and we were now almost done with the fifth class of the day. At least it was almost over.

I jolted up and blinked a couple times. "Yes?"

"What is that _cat demon_ doing in the classroom?" shouted the teacher. He walked over to my desk and tapped it a couple times. I looked at the demon and sighed.

"She must have followed me in, sir," I explained. It was a horrible excuse, but it was the truth.

"You use this excuse every time!" the teacher said.

"I do?" I asked, forgetting that my memories weren't affected by what had happened.

Eri spoke up. "Remember, Kagome suffered from a bit of amnesia. She probably doesn't remember that. And I saw the demon follow her in without her noticing."

The teacher sighed and shook his head. "You're lucky Higurashi. Just make sure that demon doesn't attack anyone or something of that sort. All right?" I nodded.

That was really lucky.

I just wish that InuYasha were just as lucky.

- - -

InuYasha dodged another bullet from the gun. He quickly found out that this was a more advanced gun than anything that he had seen in his era. Though, I can't say that he wasn't surprised. You'd think he'd be used to things being different and more advanced in my era, but no.

InuYasha was very annoyed by this human. He couldn't use the Tetsusaiga because he was a human, and he kept missing with his claws. This man was very talented. Maybe just as talented as Sango, but he relied on weapons that didn't really need strength. That made him sort of angry. It seems like he was cheating or something like that to me.

InuYasha dodged another shot at him, and tried to use his claws on the human, but he missed. Though, you could tell that InuYasha wasn't trying very hard to hit him, because even though this person was out to get him, InuYasha still couldn't hurt a human.

"Do you need some assistance?" asked another Demon Hunter.

The man InuYasha was fighting shook his head. "No! I can handle it," he shouted as he pulled something out from somewhere behind him.

He held small square-ish thing in his hand and pressed a button and it became a collar shaped a bit like a handcuff, except much bigger. InuYasha lifted an eyebrow and smirked.

"That's it? A metal circle?" InuYasha asked, laughing. He cracked his knuckles and jumped towards the man, ready to slice through him. The Demon Hunter dodged it, and at the same time he latched on the collar around InuYasha's neck. InuYasha looked down at it after he stopped and tried to pull it off. It wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?" InuYasha shouted, trying to break the collar off.

"It's no use," the Demon Hunter said. "That collar is unbreakable, and only a human would be able to take it off... But in this day and age, who would?" The man laughed. "It's much easier to defeat an ignorant half-demon like you."

"Bastard. TAKE THIS THING OFF!" InuYasha shouted as he ran towards the Demon Hunter. He took out a remote control and pressed a button, which stopped InuYasha dead in his tracks. A shock was sent through his body and he fell to his knees.

The man laughed and walked towards InuYasha. "That was pure electricity going through you. If you don't calm yourself, you'll be feeling that a lot more often. And once you get an owner then you'll have that happen to you so much your body will feel numb for days."

InuYasha tried to get up, but the man pressed the button once more, making InuYasha fall back down.

- - -

Three...

Two...

ONE!

I bolted out the door right as the bell started to ring, and I ran through the halls. I don't know what told me to go find InuYasha, but something was definitely wrong. I could tell that much.

I ran down the halls and down a flight of stairs so quickly that everything was a blur to me.

I reached the front door and ran outside, but stopped when I saw the scene before me.

You can just imagine my surprise when I found InuYasha and one of the Demon Hunters fighting in my schoolyard. How could I miss _that_?

I gasped and people around me started to gather and watch the battle go on. InuYasha had a weird type of collar on his neck (at the time I didn't know what it did) and he was on his knees. He didn't look physically hurt, besides the fact that he was panting and a cut on his cheek that was probably taken out by a bullet.

InuYasha growled.

"What the hell is this?" InuYasha panted, glaring at the man and holding onto the collar, like he was trying to take it off.

The uniformed man laughed. "I told you before. It's a restraining collar. You won't be able to take it off."

I gasped.

A few of my schoolmates were making jokes and laughing.

"Yeah, the half-breed has no chance. The stupid weakling," said a student near me.

"SHUT UP!" I shouted at them, turning and yelling as loud as I could. They looked startled.

"What's with you? Standing up for the hanyou?" the boy said.

I was fuming. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK ABOUT INUYASHA THAT WAY!" I shouted at him.

"You know that mutt?" he asked, sounding oddly familiar. Was he somehow related to Koga?

I was so angry. I hardly remember slapping the kid, other than the sound of my hand against his cheek and the slight stinging I felt afterwards.

I turned and looked at the Demon Hunter. He had some sort of strange thing with him, and I knew that it was bad news with him.

I ran out in the middle of their battlefield and stood in front of InuYasha, spreading out my arms to protect him. I don't know why I did that, but I felt like I had to.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" I shouted, my arms spreading out even more.

"Move it, girl. If you don't I'll have to take you too. That half-demon needs to be tamed," the man in the uniform said.

"No!" I shouted, growling. "I'm not going to let you take InuYasha!"

InuYasha gripped onto the collar tighter and said, "Kagome, just leave..." His eyes widened and he looked at me carefully. "If you want to help me, fine. Only a human can take this collar off..."

I turned around and knelt down, grabbing onto the collar that InuYasha was trying to get off.

I heard the click of a gun and stiffened as I felt something cold against my head.

"Don't touch it."

Those simple words sent shivers down my spine. I gripped onto the collar tightly, making my knuckles turn white.

I didn't dare turn around to meet the gun that I would meet. I gulped and locked eyes with InuYasha, my fear meeting his anger.

"Kagome..." InuYasha warned. He looked slightly worried for me.

"LET KAGOME GO!" one of my friends shouted. I think it was Ayumi.

"Yeah! Let her go!" shouted other people. Everyone was shouting things at the man as I sat there, slowly becoming paler with each passing second.

I heard the gun click again and felt it move away from my head.

I slowly turned around and looked up at the guy.

"Don't take that collar off, or I'll bring my gun back out," he said, glaring at me.

"But--"

"NO!"

"He's my--"

"That's your slave?" someone asked. I turned and looked to see Hojo coming towards us.

I shook my head. "He's my friend."

I could almost hear everyone gasp or shudder.

"You're a friend to a half demon?" Hojo asked.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?" I shouted, my anger flaring up even more.

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong with that. I actually find it very nice," Hojo explained. I smiled slightly and then looked at InuYasha. My smile disappeared.

In spite of the warnings, I took my right hand and pulled on a latch on InuYasha's collar. It instantly sprung open and InuYasha smiled. I was happy. He was happy. What could make this any better?

OK, a gun to my head wasn't exactly going to make this any better.

* * *

There is your chapter. I'm really hungry right now. 

I thought that this chapter was a decent size. At least it's bigger than the other chapters. I can at least add more stuff and junk like that. I need to learn how to improvise with my writing more.

**Next Chapter:** The Demon Hunter's collars seem to render demons useless! Things go from bad to worse for Kagome and InuYasha, as the Demon Hunters manage to get another collar on InuYasha. But it doesn't stop there.


	6. InuYasha's Capture

I'm watching _Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind_ right now. It's really weird. But whatever. I'm sure it's good. I wonder what will happen?

But, I'm more curious of what will happen in this story. xD

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Six: InuYasha's Capture**

I knelt there, fear pulsing throughout my entire body. I swallowed hard.

"I told you not to touch that collar. Now that you took it off, you must die," the Demon Hunter said, getting ready to pull the trigger on the gun.

I hardly remember what happened, but I heard the sound of the gun getting shot off. I expected to black out and feel pain, or at least die or something. Nothing ever came. I turned around to see InuYasha with his arm up. Somehow he had moved quickly enough to get in-between the gun and I and blocked the bullet.

"InuYasha..." I said, tears coming to my eyes.

InuYasha winced a little; his blood was seeping through the robe of the fire rat and dropping onto the ground.

Scattered whispers went around the students standing in the yard, whispers of 'the half demon protected her' and 'that demon blocked a bullet with his arm.'

InuYasha's smirk was still there, even though there was a continuous 'drip, drip' of blood. A small pool was forming next to InuYasha's bare feet. InuYasha didn't move at all, he didn't even move his arm down from the position he left it in from protecting me.

Suddenly the Demon Hunter took something out from his back pocket and hit InuYasha with it, and another collar appeared on InuYasha's neck.

"INUYASHA!" I shouted, standing up. I started to run over to him, but the woman Demon Hunter who was with them got behind me and restrained me.

The man who tried to shoot me took out his remote control and pressed the button, sending a shock throughout InuYasha's body.

"INUYASHA!" I shouted again, trying to get out of the woman's grasp.

The man pressed the button again, and again, and again.

"STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" I shouted, tears staining my eyes red. They couldn't get InuYasha. They just couldn't! He was too strong! But... the technology in my era was probably so much for him to take.

The Demon Hunter pressed the button once more and InuYasha fell to his knees. He walked over to my friend and punched him once, hard in the face. InuYasha was sent across the school yard and fell to the ground, too weak to get up.

"Half the demon, half the strength," the man said, smirking. He walked over to InuYasha and knelt down.

"You don't... know how... many times... I've heard... THAT!" InuYasha shouted as he sent a clawed hand up towards the Demon Hunter's neck. InuYasha's hand clamped around the Hunter's neck and he squeezed hard. Right away the man struggled for air. I gasped.

"INUYASHA! Stop it! It's not worth it! He's just a human!" I shouted at InuYasha, trying to make him stop. InuYasha frowned and he slowly let go.

I bit my lip and looked at them sadly. InuYasha dropped the man and he crumpled on the ground. He laid there, gasping for air, and he slowly got up and backed away. He started to laugh. "Foolish girl. You should have let him kill me. Then he may have had a chance to live!" he shouted. He pressed the button once more and InuYasha screamed out in pain. After it was over he fell to the ground, unconscious. That collar would have killed a human after only a few jolts from it. I could tell, if it had InuYasha knocked out.

"NO!" I shouted, trying to get out of the woman's grasp. The man and another Demon Hunter started to drag InuYasha to the truck and pulled him in. The woman restraining me threw me to the side and I fell to the ground as she ran over to the truck. I quickly got up and tried to run after them, but the truck slammed shut and sped off, leaving me standing in the exhaust when I reached where the truck was. I coughed a couple of times and I turned to look at people with bikes and other such stuff.

I ran over to Hojo and looked at him sadly. "Can I borrow your bike?" I shouted at him quickly. He nodded and I yanked it from him.

"Thanks!" I shouted as I started running with it. I hopped on and biked as fast as I could towards the truck that had taken InuYasha. With all these demonic auras it was hard to lock on InuYasha's, but I knew his so well that it didn't take _too _long.

Everything whizzed past as I went through the crowd. Though, I couldn't just keep going like this. I had to get directions. I slowed down and looked around to find someone who looked friendly.

"Excuse me, miss? Do you need some help?" asked a voice near me. I turned to see a middle-aged woman staring at me, smiling. I smiled slightly.

"Yeah, do you know where the Demon Hunter's main headquarters are?" I asked. The woman looked around a bit, a little bit intimidated by my question. She nodded.

"Yes, it's over there. Are you going to go get a slave?" she said, pointing in a certain direction. Well, yeah, I could tell it was in that direction, but I needed real _directions._

I looked over where the woman pointed and asked, "Can you give me directions to it? I need to hurry."

She nodded. "Yes, just go about ten blocks straight, and then turn right until you see the building. It's a big blue building, with a huge sign saying that it's the Demon Hunter's headquarters. You'd think they'd keep themselves sorta quiet so stray demons don't attack them," the woman explained.

"Thank you!" I shouted as I started to bike towards the building. _Maybe they want stray demons to know where they are. Maybe the Demon Hunters want them to know so they can trap more demons,_ I thought.

It seems like I've been running a lot lately. I'm sure my legs will get much stronger because of it. But that's irrelevant.

By now, I had only gone two blocks. I had eight more to go. Already my legs were getting tired, and they were sore from all of this running I was doing. I was breathing hard and sweat was starting to roll down my face and neck.

The bike ride to the Demon Hunter's headquarters gave me time to think. Though, most of my thoughts had something to do with InuYasha, or setting him free. I petaled harder, determined to help him.

InuYasha had saved me so many times in the past, but I hardly ever got to save him. Yes, I set him free from the Go-Shinboku, but that was about it, besides a few close calls. Otherwise, I hardly did anything. I know I'm strong, but I hardly ever get to prove myself.

By now there's only five more blocks. I made careful mark of each block that I passed to make sure I didn't turn too soon or to late. That would be both very embarrassing and unlucky.

Three more blocks, now. Unfortunately, the amount of people on the sidewalk and cars in the road is increasing... Not to mention that this bike is pretty uncomfortable. It has a really bad seat. I'm going to have to make sure to get my own bike next time... I wish I rode it to school today.

Two more blocks. Now I had to scream out in front of me to tell people to move out of the way. They probably thought I was a little trouble maker, but everyone either just moved or yelled at me. At least I was getting to where I was supposed to.

One more block. I saw my turn. I was almost ready to turn when I saw a police officer in front of me, holding out his hand. I pressed hard on the hand breaks and stopped right in front of him.

"Where are you going so fast, ma'am?" the officer asked.

Oh, man, I was in for it now. "I'm just trying to get to my mom's office, sir," I lied. First I was going really fast on a bike and then lying to a police officer? I'd be surprised if I didn't get a ticket or something.

"Where does she work?" he asked.

Crap. She doesn't work anywhere near here. She works on the shrine and at home. "She works at the Demon Hunter's headquarters," I lied again. I was such a bad liar.

He seemed to buy it, though. "I see. Why are you going there?" he asked.

I'm going to have a whole book of lies by the time he gets done with me. "Oh, I just have to bring her the dinner she made for herself in case she had to work overtime. She forgot it at home, and she gets in a very bad mood if she doesn't have her dinner. She is sort of a perfectionist. If she doesn't have everything just right, she'll get very angry."

The cop raised an eyebrow. "Can't she get something from the office? I'm sure they have vending machines," he said. Yes, it probably did, and there were tons of vending machines on the streets too. I smiled.

"She likes home made food. She can't stand vending machines," I lied again.

"May I see this dinner?" he asked.

My insides froze, but I kept smiling. I nodded and got my backpack off. I unzipped it and looked inside, searching for something that may help me. THANK YOU GOD! I forgot that I had lost my appetite for lunch today, thanks to the news of a test that was today and rumors of what the Demon Hunters do to the demons that they capture. I pulled out the small box that my mother made me for lunch.

"Here it is, officer. May I go now? My mother is sure to get angry if I don't hurry," I said, putting the untouched lunch back in by backpack and zipping it up.

The officer nodded and I waved goodbye. Once I rounded the corner and looked behind me a couple times, I started to speed up again. I hate to say it, but that was really annoying. I guess I can lie better, now... And I can lie better than my grandpa... Of course, anyone can lie better than him, with all the diseases he comes up with for me.

I looked around for the big blue building I was supposed to see, and sighed. This might take a while. There were lots of buildings here! And lots of them were blue! I guess I had to look for the giant sign.

I sped through the streets until I saw the biggest, bluest, and scariest modern building I had ever laid my eyes on. And not to mention the giant sign that said, "Demon Hunter Main Headquarters: Japan Branch."

I think I found the place.

* * *

Oh, man, I'm tired. I don't know why, but my eyes really hurt. I feel like playing Animal Crossing, too. I love video games. I really want Kingdom Hearts II, and I can't wait 'till May 15. That's when The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess comes out. But I really want Kingdom Hearts II. I just recently beat the first one. AGH!

**Next Chapter: **Now that Kagome's found the Demon Hunter's main headquarters, she needs to get inside and help InuYasha escape. How will she do that, though?


	7. InuYasha's Rescue

Last chapter was interesting... I guess... The first part was much more interesting... I think...

Sorry that I haven't been updating much, lately. The weekends seem to take forever to get to, and that seems to be the only time I get writing. Not to mention last week I was doing whatever for Easter, and I got KINGDOM HEARTS II FOR EASTER! W00T! I've been working on that a lot lately, too. But I went to a Twins game at the Metrodome. That was fun.

But, I'm making up for my break with an extra long chapter. Hope you all like it!

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Seven: InuYasha's Rescue**

Well, I'm here.

In front of the Demon Hunter's building.

I'm supposed to be delivering my mother's dinner to her, according to the cop I just met.

Of course, that isn't true.

Now what?

Well, it's no time to chicken out. I parked my bike (I mean, Hojo's bike) in the bike rack next to the building and walked towards the building. I was slightly startled when I saw the doors open automatically. I guess I've been in the Feudal Era too long.

I walked inside and adjusted my backpack a little bit.

The lobby was huge! The floors were marble and shiny, and the walls were white with gold trim near the floor and ceiling. There were plants all over, but none as big, or as beautiful, as the middle plant. It was a giant tree, bigger than the Go-Shinboku, and around it was tons of beautiful spring water, coming from holes in the tree. In the pond around the tree was numerous plants, like lily pads and flowers, and some weeds under the surface. There were also a bunch of koi fish in the water, too. The lobby was beautiful. You seemed to be able to see through spots on the tree because of knobby holes that had grown into it, and you could see a secretary on the other side of the tree.

I walked around the beautiful tree and looked over to the secretary's desk. She was too busy answering phone calls to notice me. Next to the elevator, which was near the secretary's desk, there was a sign naming all the floors in the building. I went over to the sign and started to read all the different floor names.

- - -

_Floor B2: Technology Testing Facility_

_Floor B1: Dangerous Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor One: Lobby and Help Desk_

_Floor Two: Available Demon Adoptions_

_Floor Three: Pig Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Four: Cat Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Five: Dog Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Six: Fox Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Seven: Raccoon Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Eight: Horse Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Nine: Insect Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Ten: Frog Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Eleven: Snake Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Twelve: Dragon Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Thirteen: Monkey Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Fourteen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Fifteen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Sixteen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Seventeen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Eighteen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Nineteen: Other Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Twenty: Half-Demon Testing and Hold_

_Floor Twenty-One: Demon Health Office_

_Floor Twenty-Two: Employee Offices_

_Floor Twenty-Three: Employee Offices_

_Floor Twenty-Four: Employee Offices_

_Floor Twenty-Five: Vice-President's Office_

_Floor Twenty-Six: President's Office_

_Floors B2 - B1 and floors 3 - 26 are off limits to non-employees unless escorted by an employee._

- - -

I stood there, reading the sign until I figured out where to look. Obviously, I didn't read well enough. Though, I did manage to read the bottom.

I needed to have an escort. No one was going to escort me around this building. I needed another plan.

I looked over to my right and saw a door. On the door it said, "Employee Locker Rooms - Employees Only." I smiled. That was perfect. I stood outside the rooms and waited for anyone to come out for a while, and then I walked inside.

Well, now I just needed to find an open locker with a uniform or something. Ugh. This would take forever. Well, fortunately, I was in luck. Right away I spotted an extra outfit in the back and went to put it on.

After changing I looked around for a name tag or something. Holy crap these guys were messy. I found one on the floor. This was too easy.

I walked out of the room, still carrying my backpack. I walked towards the elevator as calmly as I could, and pressed the button.

Now I had to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

_Ding!_

FINALLY! The doors opened to reveal another person standing in the elevator... Crap.

I stepped inside and recalled what floor InuYasha was probably on. _Floor Five: Dog Demon Testing and Hold._ That one was my best bet, and the only one that I was sure that he was on. I pressed the 5 button and saw as the other person pressed button number 12.

The elevator jolted a little bit and went up.

"So, you work with the dogs?" he asked. Holy crap, he memorized the floors?

I nodded.

"I haven't seen your face around here. Are you new?" he asked again.

I nodded again. "Yes," I answered, smiling slightly.

"I work with the dragons. Nice bunch, but really hard to handle. I suppose dealing with the dog demons is probably just as hard. There are a lot of them," he said. He was sort of weird.

"Yes, there is," I said, not really wanting to say much.

He laughed a little bit. "I actually don't approve of enslaving the demons. But, you gotta live with it," he said.

"Yeah, I guess you do," I answered, sweat pouring down my face.

He looked at me. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm just nervous. It's my first day," I answered. Oh, man, Kagome. You're going to be the queen of lying by the time you reach the age of 17. But, if it saves your friend, you gotta do it.

"I remember my first day. Ha... It was pretty scary. The demons were so intimidating," he recalled. "You look pretty young."

Oh, crap. I have to make something else up again. "Plastic surgery," I answered simply.

_Ding!_

Great! It was my stop.

"Well, this is your stop," he said. As if I didn't know that. "I hope to see you around."

Doubt it. I waved good-bye to him and walked into the room. It was huge, like the lobby, but it was so much bigger. The ceiling was just as tall, if not taller, and the floor area was much, much bigger. You couldn't tell, though, because of the cages that kept the demons. There were tons of dog demons here, some in a human form, and some in their dog form. Most of the cages were large, with three or four dog demons in it, but some cages held only one demon in them. These had different types of plants in them and at least one small pond each. I half expected to see Sesshomaru in one of them, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. He probably wasn't even alive still, or was too strong and well hidden to be caught.

Though, I noticed, every single demon had one of those collars on them.

I started walking down the isles of demons, looking for InuYasha. I don't know how many isles I went through, all I know is that I couldn't find him. All I found were sad faces looking at me. My heart ached at the horrible things they must have gone through. In the back of the room I also found some hallways. Curious, I went through them, finding out that these were the testing rooms. These rooms were all white, unlike the other cages that kept the other dog demons, and had a large window in the hallway so you could see the demon.

These demons were chained up by their arms and legs. Their arms were chained to the ceiling and suspended above the ground. The chains were so tight that they couldn't move at all, even with demon strength. It was horrible.

Some of the dog demons had no clothes on, or only some clothes. I looked away whenever there was a demon like that. I bet those rooms were cold, too.

I walked back towards the elevator, avoiding anyone who was human along the way. I sighed and rested my head on the wall once I reached there.

InuYasha wasn't in this room. I closed my eyes and sighed.

Though, wen I looked up, I noticed another sign saying what floors there were. The floor I was on was underlined, and I looked down the list from there. Then I saw it.

_Floor Twenty: Half-Demon Testing and Hold_

Crap. I'd been looking on the wrong floor the whole time. I was fifteen floors off!

Well, I'd better go to look on floor twenty.

I went in the elevator and hurried to the twentieth floor.

Once there, I noticed it looked almost exactly like the last floor I was on, except for much different demons. Before, when it was only dog demons, they all looked either dog-like or human-like... That wasn't very surprising. But these demons were more like the demons that I usually fought in the Feudal Era.

There was a mixture of pretty or cute demons, and then there were ugly ones.

I saw him.

No, not InuYasha.

I saw Jinenji, the half demon InuYasha and I met when we went to get herbs for Kirara. Tears came to my eyes as I ran over to his cage. He lived this long? I couldn't believe it.

"Jinenji?" I asked as I put my hands up to the cage. I looked at him sadly, my eyes filling with tears.

He looked at me for a second, and then gasped. "Kagome...?" Jinenji said, looking at me with his big, blue eyes.

I smiled. "Yes, it's me. How did you get in here, Jinenji?" I asked.

He smiled slightly. "They caught me."

I looked at the cage door. "Can't you get out?" I asked.

"No. The cage is resistant to demons," he said to me.

I ran over to the cage door and started to figure out how the door unlocked. I pulled off my backpack and started to dig through it, trying to find something to unlock the door. Soon enough, I found a bobby pin. Smiling, I started to mess with the lock, and soon I had it undone.

I opened the door and Jinenji stepped out. He smiled at me.

"Thank you, Kagome. I appreciate it," he told me.

I smiled. "No problem, Jinenji. Just tell me something... Did you see InuYasha being dragged around here, anywhere?"

Jinenji looked down at me. "I'm sorry, Kagome. I haven't." I frowned.

"Oh. Well, I need to find him. Good luck getting out... Maybe you can go through a window?" I suggested. "Kneel down, I'll get that collar off of you."

He did as I said and soon I got the enormous collar off. It fell to the ground with a clang, and soon Jinenji was off, waving goodbye. "I'll figure out a way to get out, you go find InuYasha," he said. I smiled and then started to run down the isle, looking in every cage for InuYasha.

Just like before, I looked down every isle and then in the back rooms before going back to the elevator with no luck. I sighed. There were so many more floors... How long was this going to take?

And just like before, there was a list of the floors that I looked at. Then, one caught my eye.

_B1: Dangerous Demon Testing and Hold_

I gasped. _What if InuYasha was considered a dangerous demon because he fought with that man instead of just going with him? I'm sure that's why he's not in the half-demon holding place or the dog demon holding place, _I thought, looking at the board in worry.

I pressed the button for the elevator and got inside as soon as it reached my floor. I went in and pressed the button for B1.

I had to find InuYasha.

I was so nervous by the time that I reached the bottom floor. The doors opened and I quickly went out of the elevator. This room was dark and had weak lighting. All around there were small cages, each with one demon, almost all of them growling or making fearsome faces. Some demons were gruesome and had blood all over them, and other demons would wait until a human was close before trying to get out of the cage and attack them. I clutched the white coat that I had disguised myself in.

I was afraid.

If InuYasha was with these guys, who knows what would happen. This is the dark underbelly of the demon world. Demons that have turned into monsters because of this horrible world. What happened in their past to make them like rabid animals?

I scurried around the place, trying to find my way through the isles and see if I could find InuYasha. Often I had to pretend to be looking at a demon and hide my face with my hair when a person passed.

My heart was pounding against my chest and I was sweating badly. I kneeled down next to a demon who didn't seem as vicious as the others and cleared my throat. The demon looked at me with red eyes. He was obviously a bird demon, I could tell that much because of the feathery hair and the feathers on the bottom of his cage.

"How old are you?" I whispered, sounding seemingly innocent.

"Well over 700 years old, why?" he said. It wasn't easily heard by anyone nearby because of the growls, shouts and other things by other demons.

"Did you see a dog demon go by here a while ago? He would have been wearing something from about 500 years ago," I whispered.

"I'll tell you what I saw if you give me something to eat," he said out loud.

Now I'm sort of glad I ran into that cop, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered about my food. I took off my backpack and took out my untouched lunch and opened it up. The smell instantly made him drool. "How's this? It was made this morning, so I'm not sure if it's exactly fresh or not," I explained.

"It's perfect!" the bird demon said. I smiled.

"Now, tell me what you saw," I said, holding the food right outside the cage.

"I saw an unconscious half-demon being dragged into the back rooms. That's where they do the testing and stuff... He musta done something really bad to get in there," the bird demon explained.

"He got in a fight with a Demon Hunter," I answered.

"What? No wonder he's back there. They're probably gonna kill him with drugs... I mean, regular demons who are just really vicious go in there, but the ones who fight humans never come out," he explained.

I gasped and bit my lip. "InuYasha... They're going to kill him?" I said, fat tears forming and rolling down my cheeks.

"Now, don't cry... I'm sure you... Wait, did you say InuYasha?" he asked. I nodded. "I remember him. He was the demon who got pinned to that tree..." I nodded again.

"Here, take the food, I won't need it," I said, squeezing the box of food through the bars of the cage.

"Thanks... I appreciate it," he said.

I smiled. "Don't mention it." I started walking off towards the back rooms, making sure to check for humans at every turn.

This part of the building was much bigger than all the other parts. They probably didn't let these demons out for a long time, and there's probably so many in here... I stopped once I reached the back rooms.

Holy crap.

There were hundreds of windows to rooms with demons in them, all of them chained up by their hands and feet. I gasped and started looked down the hall. Well, at least I started at the very end. That way, I knew there was only one way to go.

I walked down the hall, my feet echoing against the wall... This hallway was oddly quiet, the wall separating it from the main room blocked all sound. I had started counting the windows that I passed, looking in at the demons who were in there.

134...

135...

136...

My legs were starting to get tired. I hadn't sat down since school ended, or at least since I rode on that bike. I wish I had a watch on me. School has been out for at least two hours. I know that much.

189...

190...

191.

I stopped and looked through the window. There, in room 191, InuYasha hung, chained by his arms and legs. I couldn't see his face because his hair was blocking it, but I knew it was him, it was so obvious. His ears twitched slightly on top of his head, and he still wore the red pants that he always does... But they took his haori off, probably to clean the bullet wound in his arm.

I walked to the door to his room and it opened automatically, letting me in. I felt the hot tears run down my cheeks as I walked over to InuYasha, stunned that I actually found him.

"In- InuYasha?" I said, trying to make sure it was him, even though I knew it was.

InuYasha's head moved slightly, and his ears went back at the sound of my voice.

I was greeted with a low growl. InuYasha slowly brought his face up, and I gasped as I saw that InuYasha had changed into his full demon state.

"InuYasha!" I cried, running over to him. His blue and red eyes followed me and he kept growling at me, but I went over to him anyway. I hugged him tight around the waist and started muttering small things that I can't even remember now.

"K-Kagome?" InuYasha said, his voice back to normal. I gasped and backed up, looking at him carefully. He looked around, and suddenly he remembered where he was. "How did you get here, Kagome?"

"I followed you... I'm here to save you, InuYasha," I said proudly. I stood on my tiptoes and started to take the collar off InuYasha, my hands trembling. I didn't know why I was so afraid, I just kept shaking.

Soon I got the collar off and he smiled.

"Thanks, Kagome," InuYasha said. I looked him in the eyes and smiled.

"Your welcome," I answered, going over to his arm and unshackling it. I went to his other arm and he fell to the ground, hard. I giggled a little bit as I went to his feet and unshackled them, too.

"Kagome... Can you go get my shirt over there?" InuYasha asked. I turned around and quickly went to get his haori, sitting on a chair in the corner. I brought it to him and started to help him get dressed. "They did something to me... I feel weaker than normal," InuYasha complained.

I smiled. "Don't worry, I'll help you," I said, and I went to help InuYasha to his feet. Right after InuYasha got up, we froze.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" a shrill voice said to me. I slowly turned around saw a female Demon Hunter pointing a gun at me. She was young and was wearing a tight black outfit, as were the two other women behind her. I looked at her face carefully and gasped.

"Ayame?" I asked, really surprised to see this person in front of me.

"Don't make me laugh. Ayame was my mother," the woman answered. That surprised me, since she looked exactly like Ayame. "I'm Sakura. Now, tell me what you're doing in here!"

"I'm bringing him home," I said, pointing to InuYasha.

"He's a dangerous demon! He can't be trusted! And you can only bring him home if you're his master," Aya-- I mean, Sakura said.

I smiled. "I am his master... This is my slave."

Though almost unconscious, he was still feisty. "Now wait a--"

I covered InuYasha's mouth with my hand. "I know you don't like to admit it, but you're my slave, right?" I moved my hand up and down to make his head nod and soon InuYasha was moving his head by himself, realizing what I was doing.

"Well, if he is your slave, then I guess you can leave," Sakura said.

People are really gullible.

She didn't even ask why I was wearing a uniform, or why I had a school uniform underneath this white coat.

I started walking out of the room, InuYasha leaning on my shoulders. By the time I was half way down the hall, I was stopped by Sakura. "Hey, did you know my mother?"

"Well, there are many different Ayame's out there... the only one I know was a wolf demon with red hair the same color as yours," I said.

"Kagome, this woman _is_ a wolf demon," InuYasha said. I smirked.

"I didn't notice... Yeah, we knew your mother," I said, leading InuYasha out of the building. We left Sakura there, watching us walk away.

That was sort of weird, meeting the daughter of a demon we knew back in the Feudal Era. I led InuYasha through the area, avoiding all the men and women working there as to not cause trouble. InuYasha was really heavy by the time that I got to the elevator.

I pressed the button for 1. At least we only had to go one floor up.

- - -

Once we were outside I led InuYasha to an alleyway. He could pretty much walk by himself now, except he was a little unbalanced. I threw the outfit that I was wearing over my school clothes down in the dirt and looked at InuYasha.

"Can you explain to me what's going on here?" InuYasha asked me.

I sighed. "InuYasha, something happened... We must have changed the past or something, because now demons and half-demons are kept as slaves and pets here in the modern era. It's horrible! We have to find a way to change it back to the way it was!" I started crying; tears were falling down my cheeks for probably the fifth time today. I was really emotional lately, ever since I killed Kane.

"Demons aren't even supposed to exist in this era!" I shouted, wiping away the tears that were falling down my face.

InuYasha growled. "We'll figure this out... We'll get rid of these demons, and we'll change everything back to normal," InuYasha promised me. "This will all be over soon, Kagome."

* * *

Man, I've been writing all day. I'm tired. Gah. I'm really tired... Yawn... Hey, I've got an idea. Maybe I'll get some fluff in the next chapter!

**Next Chapter: **InuYasha and Kagome head home, exhausted by their day today. Though, will they get rest, with more news of the Demon Hunters?


	8. Kagome's Embarrassment

Today I feel like writing, and drawing, and reading, and doing a lot of other things. I don't know why. I just want to do everything.

Tonight is a new InuYasha (English dub)... If I don't watch it tonight, I'll watch it in the morning. I missed the last one. Oh well... I'll watch it soon. If I don't watch it on TV, I'll watch on the Internet. Shh... Don't tell.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Eight: Kagome's Embarrassment  
**

I led InuYasha down the street, everyone looking at him strangely. Of course they would, he has silver hair. But, I thankfully had a cap in my backpack, so he had to wear that.

"Are you hungry?" I asked InuYasha after hearing my own stomach growl.

"Yeah," InuYasha said, looking around and sniffing the air.

I smiled and looked around. I decided that it would be very good to get as far away from the Demon Hunter's headquarters as possible, without going to far to find food.

I looked around, and soon I saw a nice looking café on the corner of the next block. I led InuYasha across the street, away from the cars (InuYasha started growling at them) and into the building.

The inside of the café seemed to be western (or American) styled. It had black and white checkerboard tiles and hard, red fabric on the booth seats and the chair seats. It was really, really western. I couldn't say how western it was... It was just, weird. I liked it.

I led InuYasha to a booth and I sat down. He looked at the booth seat and I looked at it too. "You can sit down, you know," I said, looking back at InuYasha.

He sorta crouched a little bit and turned his body, but then yelped in pain as he turned to quickly and hit his leg against the table. I laughed a little bit and then got out of the booth. "Let's go sit somewhere where you can sit down comfortably," I said, even though I really liked the booth. I helped InuYasha out and we went over to a table, the chairs covered by the same red material on the booth. InuYasha was able to sit on these chairs just fine.

Soon a woman came by with two menus and gave one to each of us.

While InuYasha looked at the menu, trying to figure out what it was for, I looked through the food to see what looked the best.

"InuYasha, do you want a hamburger?" I asked, smirking.

"Huh?"

I giggled. "I'll take that as a yes. You'll like it," I said, looking around to see if there was a waitress.

A woman walked over and took our orders, and we waited for our food (two hamburgers and two Cokes, in case you're wondering). I heard a TV somewhere, and I turned around to look at it. It was on the news. Fun.

InuYasha looked at the TV carefully and blinked a few times. "It's one of those weird box things," InuYasha said quietly.

"It's a television, InuYasha," I said just before the waitress came over with our food. InuYasha sniffed his hamburger and I picked mine up and bit into it. Holy crap it was good. I looked around and saw a picture of an American man, who apparently was the owner of this restaurant. No wonder the hamburgers were so good. It was better than McDonald's.

"Is this all right to eat?" InuYasha asked.

I sighed. "I'm eating it, aren't I?" I picked up a ketchup bottle and put some ketchup on my plate, and then some on InuYasha's. Those French fries looked pretty good, too.

"_The Demon Hunters have become a household name, and only a few short years after they've been established," _said a reporter on the TV. I turned around and started to listen to what the TV said. InuYasha looked up too, chewing on a little bite of his burger.

"_Recently there's been more and more demons, but the Demon Hunters have kept them under control, using their special collars to stop the demons from doing any harm. Today, the Demon Hunters released information stating that they had a new president, who could not be here for a statement today," _the reporter said, standing in front of the Demon Hunter's building.

"I'll kill him!" InuYasha shouted, standing up, but wobbling a little bit.

"Sit," I said, and InuYasha fell to the ground. I picked up a few of my French fries and dipped them in the ketchup.

"What was that for?" InuYasha shouted. I just stared at him.

I sighed, shoving the fries in my mouth. "You need to rest, InuYasha. You may not realize it, but you're still very weak from what the Demon Hunters did to you. And you're making a scene," I said calmly.

InuYasha grumbled and sat down in his seat, shoving his burger into his mouth and taking a huge bite. I smiled a little bit, knowing he'd have a tough time eating that.

"InuYasha..." I warned, but he was already trying to eat that gigantic piece of food. I giggled.

I took another bite of my hamburger, and then grabbed on my plate for another French fry. I looked down and realized there was none there. I sighed.

InuYasha finally swallowed his piece of food and looked at my plate. "Have some of mine," he said, pointing to his untouched pile of fries.

"Really?" I asked, smiling. He nodded, and I took a few, dipping them in my ketchup. I ate them and said to him, "You should try them. They're pretty good. You like the burger, right?" InuYasha nodded. "Then you'll like the fries."

He tried some, and smiled a little bit. "They're good," he said, eating them quickly. I ate the rest of my burger as I watched InuYasha scarfing down his food.

"InuYasha, are you ready to go?" I asked him.

He looked up from his pop, which he was drinking rather quickly, and said, "Hm?"

"I'll pay for our meal, and then we can go," I said, getting some money out. I went to pay and we left the café.

I blinked a couple times, getting used to the sudden brightness of the sun, and then I gasped. "I forgot Hojo's bike!" I said, realizing what I did. "We'll have to go back and get it, InuYasha."

He still looked a bit worn out from his experience in the building, and I hated to bring him back there, but I had to. Though InuYasha complained, we went to go get Hojo's bike. Soon enough we found it and I got on it, getting ready to go. "Let's go bring this to Hojo's house, all right?"

"Fine," InuYasha grumbled. I smiled and got on the bike, and InuYasha sat right behind me. Good thing there was plenty of room, or else InuYasha would have fallen off. I started to pedal us to Hojo's house when I realized I didn't really know where it was. I knew in what general direction it was, but I didn't know where he lived... Well, I might as well just go to the school.

InuYasha was a bit impatient as I went towards our destination. But, he's always impatient. When we got to the school, I was startled to find that Hojo was still standing there, waiting for me.

InuYasha turned to look at him, and glared.

"Hojo? Why are you still waiting here?" I asked, slowing down and getting off his bike.

"I wanted to see if you would come back, so I waited," Hojo explained.

"Oh. Well, I brought your bike back. I'll see you soon, Hojo," I said as InuYasha got off the bike. He just glared at Hojo.

"Goodbye, Higurashi," Hojo said as he pedaled off on his bike.

InuYasha glared after him and growled. "Keh. It's a good thing he left. I don't like him," InuYasha said.

"InuYasha! Don't say that. You don't even know him!" I said as I started to walk home. InuYasha walked beside me, but soon he tripped over a bit of sidewalk and fell.

"InuYasha! Are you all right?" I asked, kneeling down.

"Yeah, just a bit tired still. Those Demon Hunters really did something bad to me," InuYasha said, pushing himself up. He looked a bit helpless, lying there on the ground. Once he got to a kneeling position I took his arm and put it around my shoulder and helped him up.

Though InuYasha was walking fine just before, I could tell that he was faking health and actually in great pain. I guess I didn't help him because he didn't, ask though. But now he was pretty much relying on me to be his legs.

I blushed a little bit as InuYasha stumbled a bit and leaned close to me.

"How much farther is your house, Kagome?" InuYasha asked me after walking for a while.

"Not too far. Are you getting tired?" I replied.

"No!"

"You don't have to lie to me, InuYasha. Don't worry, we won't have to walk to much longer, now. Just a few more blocks," I said, smiling a little bit.

InuYasha grumbled and muttered something under his breath. I glared and stopped.

I turned towards him and backed away as I asked, "What did you say?" I distinctly heard the word 'wench' in his mutterings.

"I didn't say nothin'!" InuYasha defended.

Suddenly he brought his hand to his head, looking a little bit dizzy, and started to fall again. I ran over to him quickly and helped him get his balance again.

"Sorry, InuYasha," I said, letting him lean on me again.

"What are you saying sorry for?" he growled.

"I let you fall..." I said, looking at the ground.

InuYasha glared at me. "No, you didn't. You caught me before I did fall. It's my fault I lost my balance."

"If I didn't get so mad at you..."

"If you didn't get mad at me then I would think something was wrong with you. You hate it when I call you 'wench'," InuYasha said.

I looked at him and then back at the ground. "I'm sorry, InuYasha... You always are there to protect me, but I can't do anything for you."

"What are you talking about, Kagome? You saved me from those demon hunters!" InuYasha shouted. I looked up at InuYasha and sighed.

"The only reason you were taken from the demon hunters is because I couldn't stop them," I explained.

InuYasha glared at me. "I couldn't even stop them! What makes you think you could?" InuYasha asked.

"I don't know... I just thought..." I said, looking ahead of me. I saw the shrine up ahead, not too far away from here.

"Kagome, quit blaming yourself for everything. You can't stop some things, and most the things you blame yourself for aren't your fault," InuYasha said to me. "Like Kane... You couldn't see him. It was an accident."

I felt the sting of tears at the thought of Kane. Trying to avoid the subject, I looked at InuYasha's arm. "How's that wound?" I asked, referring to the bullet he took in his arm.

"It's fine. The Demon Hunters took out that bullet thing, and it's healing fast," InuYasha explained.

"That's good." I started to climb up the stairs to the shrine, and InuYasha leaned against me even more to help him climb up the stairs.

InuYasha... Did you mean all those things you said to me?

- - -

I yawned and looked outside. I had just finished my homework, and it was really late. I turned to look at my clock and gasped. It was almost midnight! I turned around to see InuYasha laying down on my bed, facing me at my desk. He had fallen asleep just a few minutes after he laid down, which was at about 8 o'clock. A little bit after dinner. He was so tired from what happened, I can't blame him.

Though, I was tired now, too. I'm glad tomorrow was Sunday. (A/N: Some/many Japanese schools have school on Saturday, but usually school usually lasts until noon or so then.)

I was too tired to change into anything different, so I just took off my socks and turned off my lamp. I walked over to the bed and crawled onto it and laid down, my back towards InuYasha's back. I stared at the wall for a few minutes, before dozing off.

- - -

I kept my eyes closed when I woke up. I didn't want to wake up or move. I was so warm. Though, I should get up.

I opened my eyes and felt my face heat up with a huge blush. I saw a bit of white hair and red, and I realized my head was tucked up under InuYasha's neck. I felt the blanket that we had both slept on was up over my legs, and my back, but not over the front of my torso. Under the blanket, InuYasha's hand was on my waist and his other arm was next to my back, sort of like an awkward hug. My left hand was up on InuYasha's neck, and I started to slowly move it back towards my chest with my other hand, but InuYasha started to move a little bit, so I stopped. I really didn't want to wake him up.

How did we both turn around? Our backs were facing each other when we went to sleep! I could feel my face getting even hotter. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, feeling my blush go up to my ears. Though, I was very comfortable lying there.

I didn't dare move anything but my head. I could only move that a little bit, because otherwise I'd just wake InuYasha up. Though, he was going to wake up anyway.

My breath slowed a bit, and I closed my eyes once more and tucked my head into InuYasha's neck, the top of my head barely touching him.

I waited for a while, slowly getting less patient and more embarrassed. InuYasha moved a little bit, moving his arm near my back closer to me, pushing me closer to him. My face heated up again, and I was almost sure that if I looked in a mirror my face would have been as red as InuYasha's haori.

I heard my door get pushed a little bit, and then felt someone get on my bed. I heard purring, and realized it was just Buyo... But what if someone else was coming? DAMMIT!

_STAY CALM, KAGOME! _I told myself, breathing deeply.

InuYasha's ear twitched and he yawned. He moved a little bit; I could feel his head move around.

"Hm?" he said, before looking down at me. "YOW!" he shouted before jumping off the bed. My hand fell to the bed where InuYasha's neck had been. I quickly sat up, my face as red as a tomato, and InuYasha's face looked as red as mine.

"Wh-what happened?" he asked me.

"Don't ask me! At least you woke up before anyone came in here!" I shouted, my heart pounding so loud I could hear it.

Sota walked into the room and looked around. "What's going on?" he asked.

"NOTHING!" InuYasha and I shouted together, our blushes still on our faces.

- - -

Breakfast was quiet; InuYasha and I still had a small blush on our cheeks. Mama, Sota and Grandpa were all looking at us carefully before going to talk about whatever.

"Oh, Kagome?" Mama said. I looked up from my breakfast. "Why were you and InuYasha home so late yesterday?"

I sighed. "Demon Hunters," I said. Mama gasped. "They were at the school and caught InuYasha."

"What happened?" Sota asked.

"Keh! I could have taken them if it weren't for those collars," InuYasha said, glaring at his food. "Kagome had to come get me from the building... I don't know what those damn Demon Hunters did, but I still feel weak."

I remembered what the bird demon said, the one that I gave food. "InuYasha, a demon said that the demons who fight against humans get injected with drugs and killed. I suppose they were testing on you before they were going to kill you..."

"WHAT?" InuYasha shouted, slamming his hand on the table.

I nodded sadly. "I even found Jinenji there, but I let him out," I said.

"They had Jinenji?" InuYasha asked. I nodded.

"I checked two whole floors before finding the right one," I explained.

"Well, if you could search better you mighta found me faster!" InuYasha shouted, folding his arms and looking slightly smug.

I glared. "Hey! I didn't expect you to be on the dangerous demon floor! You could have been on the dog demon or half demon floor!"

"Well--"

"WELL NOTHING! SIT!"

InuYasha's face slammed into the floor and the house shook a little bit. I forgot that I shouldn't sit InuYasha in the house.

I stood up angrily and stormed outside, scaring off anyone who looked at me. I sighed and went to the sacred Go-Shinboku. I rested my hand on the tree and looked at the scar where Kikyo's arrow hit the tree.

"This is turning out to be a swell day," I said, resting my head against the tree.

I looked over to the well house and walked over to it, the dirt crunching underneath my feet. "I wonder how Sango and the others are doing back there? They must be a bit worried. Seeing as how I left after..."

I stopped talking. I didn't want to think about _him_. Not after what I did. It was a horrible experience. It was worse seeing a Feudal battlefield.

I wish...

I wish that had never happened.

It wasn't supposed to happen.

But I couldn't think about that now. Now I needed to think about the Demon Hunters, and how to get rid of the demons in my era. Otherwise, what was going to happen here?

I turned around and walked back into the house, ignoring my family's stares.

I walked to my room and opened a window, letting the fresh air enter the room. I looked over to the bed and blushed. I don't know if I'll ever get over that. I went over to the window and sat on the ledge, hanging one leg on each side, so I wouldn't fall.

I closed my eyes and rested there, letting my thoughts float away from me.

"Kagome?"

"AHHH!" I shouted as I almost fell off the ledge. I felt someone catch me before I fell, though. I looked up and saw InuYasha. He stood on a tree branch near my window, holding onto me tightly, but without hurting me. InuYasha lifted me up and set me on the tree branch with him, where I sat down, as did he.

I caught my breath as my heart slowed and InuYasha looked at me carefully.

"DON'T _DO_ THAT!" I shouted, holding my hand to my heart. His ear twitched and I sighed. "What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked, my tone of voice sounding like I was dreading this conversation.

He cleared his throat and blushed. "Um... About this morning..."

"Oh." I felt my face heat up.

"Uh..."

"..."

"Well..."

"Yes?"

"Kagome, I..."

"InuYasha, if there's something you need to say, just say it."

"Well, first... Why didn't you move?"

"I didn't want to wake you up," I said, blushing a little bit.

"And... Uh... Why didn't you want to wake me up?"

I blushed some more. "I wanted to let you sleep... It's only polite."

"Oh." InuYasha scratched the back of his head.

"Did you have to jump so quickly? It startled me."

InuYasha blushed more. "Well..."

I looked away. "And I was... comfortable," I said, my face turning redder.

InuYasha blushed too. "You... were?"

"Weren't you?" I asked.

He paused for a second. "Uh... Yeah."

"OK."

"What?"

I looked at him and sighed, but then smiled a little bit. "I'm glad we got this over with. And I'm happy that we talked about it."

InuYasha looked at me with wide eyes. "Y-you are?" InuYasha asked, startled.

"Yes, I am," I said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. I smiled. "Besides, we need to talk about things like that. It makes me happy that you feel you should talk to me about stuff."

InuYasha smiled a little bit, too. "I suppose we should get down from here," InuYasha said, standing again. He helped me up and then jumped down with me in his left arm.

"InuYasha... Thanks for talking with me," I said, walking towards the house. I stopped in front of the door and turned towards InuYasha.

"Tomorrow we're going to go to the Demon Hunter's main headquarters again. I'm sure you'll be all healed up by then. We can finally confront the president of that 'company' and we'll get rid of him," I said to InuYasha. He nodded and we walked inside, getting ready for our day tomorrow, and getting our energy up.

* * *

You know what? The part with InuYasha and Kagome in bed was based on a dream I had last night. Weird, right? Well, the dream had something to do with this lady who wanted to marry InuYasha because somehow he got a lot of money and a huge house, and then somehow she got the house, and kidnapped InuYasha and Kagome's three kids, and then at the end Kagome and InuYasha saved their kids with the help of Sango and Miroku and then they snuggled up and stuff because they were so exhausted... it was weird. 

Anyway, hoped you like the chapter.

**Next Chapter: ** Kagome and InuYasha go to the Demon Hunter's headquarters again to find the president of the company. But there's a surprise when they get there. Who is the new president, and what's so special about him?


	9. InuYasha's Anger

Well, here's the ninth chapter. Did you know that nine is my favorite number? Well, it is. Here's the chapter.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Nine: InuYasha's Anger**

I stood in front of the Demon Hunter's Main Headquarters with InuYasha by my side. Both of us looked determined, ready for a fight. I glared at the building and InuYasha clenched his fist. We turned our heads towards each other and I nodded, leading us into the building. I walked past the beautiful tree fountain and past the secretary, and I went right to the sign that says what floor things are on.

"Our destination is floor twenty-six," I said, turning towards the elevator. InuYasha followed and I pressed the button for the elevator to come down. InuYasha watched, amazed, as the doors to the elevator opened. I walked inside, but InuYasha hesitated. "Come on! Hurry!" I hissed, waving for InuYasha to come in the elevator. InuYasha came in and I pressed the button for floor 26.

InuYasha was startled when the elevator started moving, and he grabbed for the nearest railing. I giggled a little bit, and then looked at the silver walls of the moving room.

I turned around to look at InuYasha and smiled as he slowly got used to the elevator. Suddenly it stopped.

I looked up to the number when the elevator doors didn't move again. It was only on floor 19. I gasped.

"What?" InuYasha asked, looking around.

"The elevator's stopped... It might take a while before it gets going again," I said, sighing.

"And we were so determined, too!" InuYasha said.

I closed my eyes. "Sort of ruins the dramatic tension, doesn't it? I suppose we should have taken the stairs."

"Stupid elevator thing..." InuYasha said, sitting down and crossing his arms.

"It does no good to pout, InuYasha," I said, glaring at him.

InuYasha glared at nothing and turned his head sharply. "Hmph!"

Suddenly the elevator jolted up and I fell to the floor by the sudden movement, my forehead hitting the carpeted floor hard. I groaned and pushed myself up, glaring at the floor and rubbing my forehead.

"Are you all right?" InuYasha asked, walking over to me. I stared at him, my mouth slightly open. He actually cared? I nodded and he helped me to my feet, and I brushed myself off.

"Ow..." I said, rubbing my forehead.

He moved my hand and looked at my forehead carefully, moving my hair out of the way. I blushed slightly. He frowned. "That's already making a pretty big bump."

"Too bad we don't have any ice," I said, frowning.

"We don't have time for ice. The doors have opened," InuYasha said, taking my wrist and leading me outside of the elevator. We walked into a huge room, it looked almost bigger than the rooms with the demons, but it was just because there weren't any cages in here that it looked bigger. Ahead of us was a huge chair, turned away so we couldn't see who was sitting in it. In front of the chair was a huge marble desk, and over near the wall was a huge fish tank. Everywhere else there were empty spaces and chairs, and all this other stuff, too, but that's not important.

InuYasha growled and sniffed the air, but then stopped growling after sniffing the air.

"So, you're still alive?" a familiar voice said. I gasped, realizing who it was. The chair spun around and the man sitting in it smirked slightly, which looked out of place on his face. "It's nice to see you again, little brother."

"Sesshomaru!" InuYasha shouted, grabbing for his Tetsusaiga. Indeed it was Sesshomaru sitting in the chair, business suit and all. It looked rather strange on him, but I guess everyone has to make changes.

"You lived this long, Sesshomaru?" I asked. The smile disappeared from his face and he nodded.

"YOU'RE THE LEADER OF THE DEMON HUNTERS?" InuYasha shouted. "I knew I hated you before, but after what your lackeys did to me! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"So you were the hanyou they had caught. You were the very first hanyou to ever get into the dangerous demons floor. Congratulations," Sesshomaru said. "You were also the first to escape from there. It would have been more impressive if you did it without the help of a _human_, though."

InuYasha growled and took out his Tetsusaiga; the fang transformed into it's true state.

"You still have our father's fang, after all these years," Sesshomaru said, looking at the Tetsusaiga with an emotionless gaze.

"It's only been a few days for us," I said, looking at Sesshomaru carefully.

"Ah, yes... that well..." Sesshomaru said, shifting his gaze to me.

InuYasha growled once more. "JUST SHUT UP AND FIGHT!" InuYasha shouted, running towards Sesshomaru, his sword high up in the air. Sesshomaru quickly took out Tokijin from somewhere under his desk and parried the blow from InuYasha. It looked rather strange to see Sesshomaru in a business suit fighting with a sword.

InuYasha ran towards Sesshomaru and swiped at him with the sword, but Sesshomaru dodged him. They traveled around the room, doing the hit and dodge thing over and over. "QUIT DODGING AND FIGHT!" InuYasha bellowed, taking another quick strike at Sesshomaru.

The inu youkai jumped up into the air and went behind InuYasha, taking his sword out and slashing towards InuYasha. InuYasha quickly blocked it with his own sword, then pushed Sesshomaru's sword aside. InuYasha brought his sword up and then hit the ground, shouting out "WIND SCAR!" The attack tore up the floor and went towards Sesshomaru, who easily dodged the attack. The windows that were hit by the attack broke into thousands of pieces with a loud shattering sound.

Sesshomaru took a few swipes at InuYasha, who jumped back a bit, too. Sesshomaru slashed his sword out quickly, scraping InuYasha's cheek. InuYasha growled and threw out his sword towards his brother, who blocked it and pushed it slightly towards InuYasha.

They both moved closer to try and use their weight to push their sword towards the other and get him.

"What are you doing here?" InuYasha shouted, glaring at his brother.

Sesshomaru glared. "I had to do something to earn money. You can't just kill humans here. They can fight back now," Sesshomaru explained, his glare growing ever more powerful.

InuYasha growled.

"Do you really think I'll buy that?" InuYasha shouted at him, his anger powering his attacks. He kept swinging his sword at Sesshomaru in a reckless style.

Sesshomaru started to lead InuYasha towards his desk. I stared at them, wondering what Sesshomaru was planning.

Sesshomaru knocked InuYasha back and opened a drawer from his desk. "INUYASHA!" I shouted. "LOOK OUT!"

InuYasha jumped towards Sesshomaru, but was stopped when Sesshomaru put one of the Demon Hunter's collars around InuYasha.

"NO!" I shouted, but Sesshomaru had already pressed the button, sending the horrible shocks through InuYasha. Sesshomaru walked over to InuYasha, who was slouching in pain, and hit InuYasha hard with the Tokijin. InuYasha was sent across the room and hit the wall nearest me.

"INUYASHA!" I shouted again as I ran over to him.

"Ka... go... me..." InuYasha muttered as I ran over to him.

"Are you all right, Inuyasha?" I asked as I kneeled down next to him.

InuYasha growled and looked up at Sesshomaru, his glare able to kill. "Sesshomaru... I didn't think you would stoop as low as to use one of these damned collars."

Sesshomaru just blinked and stared emotionlessly at InuYasha. "Do you think that I used that to defeat you, InuYasha?"

InuYasha's eyes widened.

"I used that collar to get you to listen to me. You weren't going to do that otherwise," Sesshomaru said.

I gasped. What was he going to say? What did he mean?

"I'm looking for someone you know too well," Sesshomaru said, going over to his desk and sitting down on top of it. He held onto the remote tightly and his thumb lingered over the button to cause InuYasha pain.

"And who would that be?" InuYasha asked.

"You mean you don't know? He's been running the show since the start. I'd think even you would have figured it out by now," Sesshomaru said, getting off the desk and walking over towards us. I moved a little bit closer to InuYasha, my knees squishing the carpet beneath me. InuYasha cringed a little bit.

My hands moved to InuYasha's neck and I started to fumble with the collar.

"He's still alive. You never managed to kill him," Sesshomaru said.

I gasped just as the collar unlocked itself. Was Sesshomaru looking for--?

Sesshomaru stood right in front of InuYasha now, not three feet away.

"I'm searching for Naraku."

* * *

GASP! He's still alive? No way!

And a cookie to Maki, for guessing who was the new president of the company! Here, have a cookie.

**Next Chapter: **InuYasha and Kagome are both obviously surprised by this, but what is going to happen between them and Sesshomaru? And what will InuYasha do?


	10. Sesshomaru's Disguise

Well, the last chapter was kind of short, but it had a big shocker in there. Didn't it? If you think not, then screw you. :P

Anyway, here's the chapter.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Ten: Sesshomaru's Disguise  
**

"N-Naraku?" I said, hardly believing what I was hearing. Yes, the clues that Sesshomaru had given me made me realize whom he was talking about, but I had refused to believe it was true. We failed? We failed the mission we set out to do? How... how could we have not defeated him?

I looked at InuYasha, who was as stunned as I was. He didn't even move the collar that I had just opened away from his neck. He just stared at his brother, his mouth hanging by its hinges.

I looked at InuYasha. "Inu... Yasha..." I muttered, tears forming at the corners of my eyes. InuYasha looked at me sadly.

The tears wouldn't stop, so I just cried, sitting there next to InuYasha. "W-we didn't do it! W-we never k-killed him!" I cried, my tears streaming down my cheeks. I leaned into InuYasha's shoulder and bawled my eyes out. All these emotions were running through me like water in a river.

"It all started with Kane! I wish I had never killed him, even if he did thank me! Then you got taken away from me! I thought I'd never get to see you again! All the pain that they put you through!" I shouted into InuYasha's haori. I backed off and looked at InuYasha through puffy eyes. "My home has become a hell. I wish everything would go back to the way it was."

InuYasha looked at me, his eyes hard. He didn't know what to say. He turned to look at Sesshomaru, who just stood there, watching us.

I turned to look at Sesshomaru also, and blinked a couple times. "Wait..." I sniffled, standing up. "How come you are the president of the Demon Hunters? Can't other people tell that you're a demon?"

Sesshomaru looked out the window.

"That is not your concern," Sesshomaru said, turning his head towards me. I frowned.

"We're caught up in this mess now, too! You owe us an explanation as much as you would owe someone else who discovered who you were, and could use it as blackmail," I said, hardly realizing what I was saying until I said it. Well, at least I did have blackmail. That was lucky.

Sesshomaru glared and sighed. "You're smarter than most of those other humans." Sesshomaru turned around to face the window again. He was bathed in golden sunlight from the setting sun. Was it that late already? Though I hated to admit it, Sesshomaru looked quite handsome standing there, the light shining on his silver hair... but the business suit just threw it all off.

He stood there for a while, but when he turned around, I gasped. The purple marks on his face and the crescent moon on his forehead were gone now, and his ears had become rounded and like a human's. Though, his eyes were unchanged.

"When the humans started to become more technologically advanced, I had realized that even though I would be able to defeat most everyone easily, the humans would just come with more reinforcements, and with their weapons. Not to mention I would killing needlessly," Sesshomaru said, telling his story. "Not too long ago I discovered a way to disguise myself as a human, or even to change my entire appearance. I didn't learn by myself, though. A fox demon taught me. It requires extreme concentration, and I'm sure that if you tried hard enough, little brother, you would be able to learn how to do this trick."

I looked at him, amazed. I tried to feel a demonic aura from him, but his super powerful aura was almost nothing at all.

I turned around to look at InuYasha when I heard Sesshomaru speak again. "Naraku is running this company, and anything to do with the demons being enslaved. I am gathering information for my own personal reasons... Though I do choose to share some with the resistance," Sesshomaru explained.

"Resistance?" InuYasha asked, surprised to hear that anyone would go against this company.

Sesshomaru nodded. "There are many branches of it, but there are two groups that they are in. Demons and humans."

"Oh," I stated. I didn't understand completely, but I went with it anyway.

InuYasha stood up; the collar that was still managing to stay on his neck fell off and hit the ground with a thud. "We have to go find Naraku," InuYasha said, clenching his fist and looking as determined as ever. I nodded and got on InuYasha's back. He started running and then jumped through the broken window, making people who were below (they were looking at the broken glass on the ground) look up and gasp or scream.

InuYasha ran across the tops of the buildings, the wind blowing through his hair and pushing it into my face. I was used to it by now, but it still sort of bugged me. I gripped onto InuYasha's shoulders a little bit tighter and frowned. The sun was slowly going down; the light from the city was taking over the sky so the stars were hardly visible.

I heard my stomach growl and I groaned a bit. "We probably should have went back home... Mama is probably very worried about me, and we can always go look for Naraku tomorrow... Not to mention it'll be harder to find him."

InuYasha growled and shook his head. "We're going to find him, and I don't want to lose any time on it..." I groaned and whined a little bit, and InuYasha looked back at me. He sighed. "We'll find some place to get food, alright?"

"InuYaaaaaaaasha," I whined. "Come _on_! I need a place to sleep, too..."

InuYasha was the one who groaned now. "Fine... We just have to find a decent person who will take us in for the night. People aren't as nice here compared to my time."

"Though my time doesn't have any demons, and it's relatively safer, there are still dangers. People aren't as nice as they used to be. There's more rape, more murder, and more attacks... Though, in your time there's a lot of murder, too," I said, sighing a bit.

InuYasha just listened to me blather on as he landed in an alleyway. I got off of him and we walked out into the street. This looked like a darker part of town... So much for finding a 'decent person' here. This looked like it was the bottom of the garbage can of the city.

"I hope we can find someone nice," I said, seriously doubting my words. Everyone we passed on the sidewalk seemed to have a dark aura about him or her, or maybe it was the smell of not having a shower or bath for weeks coming from each of them.

I looked at everyone who passed us carefully, trying to decide if they would help us or kill us. InuYasha put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me suddenly, and I looked out ahead of me, where he was looking. There was a woman standing in front of us, gaping slightly and holding a bag of groceries. She wore a fairly nice pair of shoes (cream-colored sandals) and a green skirt, along with a light pink button up blouse. Her black-brown hair was long and straight, reaching her lower back, and the color of her hair seemed to match her eyes.

She stared at us, and my mind seemed to tell me that I had seen her somewhere before. She took a few steps forward and then looked from InuYasha to me, and then back and fourth for a while. She almost seemed to be in shock.

"I've seen you before..." she said, looking at us.

I cleared my throat and looked at the girl carefully. "Uh... We were hoping to find someone to spend the night with... I don't suppose..."

"OH! Sure, of course! I was just walking home... Though, if you do stay, I must warn you that there are quite a few of us. We own our own building, though," the stranger said, starting to walk the direction she was going before. InuYasha and I followed her. She was pretty, and she had very little makeup on, just some eye shadow. She also seemed to be a year older than me, though she acted much older.

We followed her for about ten minutes until we reached a very large apartment building. It looked big enough to fit one of the villages in the _Sengoku Jidai _in it, with a couple extra floors to hold the land that the villagers lived on. To put it simply, it could fit a lot of people.

She took out a large set of keys from a black purse on her shoulder and started to unlock the door's many locks (I think I counted 23 locks, and yes, it did go really low on the door) and then she opened the door and ushered us in. I took off my shoes and InuYasha wiped his feet a little bit as the girl re-locked the door.

"What's your name?" I asked.

She looked at me and brought her hand up to her face and blushed. "Oh! I'm sorry. My name is Gosai. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," she said, scratching the back of her head.

Gosai... Now that's an interesting name.

Gosai led us through the building, our shoeless feet slapping on the ground. InuYasha's feet seemed to stick a little bit, even if they were a bit dirty. The floor was shiny, and the building seemed to be styled a lot like the _Sengoku Jidai_'s villages. Small children popped their heads out of rooms, and they smiled when they saw InuYasha. I giggled as they ran back in the rooms. I took a glimpse through one of the open doors, and I saw it was just like a regular apartment. I thought they were just bedrooms. But it was just a lot of apartments.

"We're like a little miniature village inside this building," Gosai said, going over to a staircase. We followed her up eight floors, and she told us to wait while she put away her bag of food. This floor had the biggest room, and I assumed this was what would be like the 'headman's hut.' Gosai came back quickly and led us up another two floors.

"What is this place?" I asked Gosai. She smiled and put some hair behind her ear.

"These are the remnants of the most powerful demon slayer's village known. We live here now, and are all descendents of some of the most powerful demon slayers of the Warring-States Era," Gosai explained. She led us down a short hallway that started from the stairs, and opened up a door.

We entered a huge room, with quite a few people training.

"And as descendents of demon slayers, we must continue to train as them," Gosai said. Gosai started to lead us through the room and around everyone as they trained. They seemed to be just as good, or maybe even better, than the demon slayers that InuYasha and I had met. Gosai was talking again, now. "Though, we don't really slay demons even more, we still keep up the practice. Now we're fighting with the demons, and trying to free them."

"This is what Sesshomaru must have been talking about..." InuYasha said, scratching his head, moving the hat on his head slightly.

"I thought it was a little strange that you let us in here when you said that you still trained as demon slayers. I didn't think you'd let a demon come in here willingly," I said, looking over at InuYasha.

Gosai opened another door and pretty much shoved us inside. In this room was a small shrine; the only light was coming from candles around the room.

"I want you to see something. These two are the founders of our village, and their friends," Gosai said, walking over to a curtain in front of us. She pulled on the curtain, and it opened up to reveal quite a few pictures, painted by a monk. I gasped. They were the pictures from my schoolbook. The exact paintings that Miroku had painted of InuYasha and I, and in the middle it was one of Sango, and a painting of Miroku that was in a different style then the others. He apparently got someone to do one of him... And there was Shippo, and everyone was there.

I gasped.

"Sango... Miroku... Shippo..." I said. I looked over to InuYasha, and he was as stunned as I was.

* * *

I'm so tired. I need to get to bed pretty soon. But, by the time I get this up tomorrow, or whenever I get it up, it'll probably be in the morning or afternoon... Whatever. 

**Next Chapter: **This 'village' of demon slayers... What are they doing? Is Gosai telling the truth? How can these guys help Kagome and InuYasha? Well, you'll only find out here, in the next chapter.


	11. Gosai's Tale

I still feel sort of tired. I got tons of sleep, and woke up when I chose to... I'm still tired. I think I got 11 hours of sleep, and... You get the point. OK...

There's a lot of chapters with words like "story", "tale"... Uh... yeah. OK, only two, but it seems like a lot.

Anyway, on with the chapter.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Eleven: Gosai's Tale**

I felt tears sting my eyes, but I tried to keep them back. I couldn't tell if they were happy tears or sad tears... But they were tears, either way, and I was crying too much lately. I quietly wiped my eyes and went back to looking at the pictures. They looked so much like my friends.

Gosai sat down on a pillow near the paintings and gestured for us to sit down as well. We sat down on two other pillows and sat across from her. She cleared her throat and glanced at the pictures before looking at us.

"Like I said before, this village was a demon slayer's village. It was founded by the two humans in the middle, with the help of the others," Gosai stated, telling us again what had happened.

"The monk and demon slayer in the paintings were in love, and decided to make this village together. They found other people to help them, and villagers to live there. The woman, who was named Sango, taught the villagers how to become demon slayers, and the monk helped her," Gosai said, her smile soft and pleasent. "They had done this after defeating a very powerful demon that had plauged the land for years."

InuYasha and I glanced at each other, wondering how it could be that we defeated Naraku, but he was back here.

"The two of them had three children, two boys and a girl, and they were trained well. But when the oldest child was around ten years old, the demon that they had defeated wasn't completely dead. The monk, Miroku, had a hole in his hand, much like a black hole, which would suck in anything that it came across," Gosai said, her face losing it's gentle smile.

InuYasha and I knew what was coming next.

"During a visit from their friends that helped defeat the demon before, Miroku suddenly left the village quickly. Sango followed him to the outskirts of the village and ran up to Miroku, trying to get him to tell her what was wrong. Their friends came soon after and watched the scene from afar. The monk said that he loved his wife, and then he somehow managed to throw her towards their friends," Gosai continued, her face looking more grim. InuYasha's face only took a subtle change, but I was on the verge of tears.

"Miroku told the demon over there," Gosai pointed to the picture of InuYasha, "to hold onto Sango. He did so, and right after he took a hold of the demon slayer's arm, Miroku's air hole, or Wind Tunnel, broke open and started to suck Miroku in. That was his fate, like his father and grandfather before him. The demon had to hold onto both of the women watching, as they were both trying to run towards the monk and do something to try and save him... Though the demon knew that they would just get sucked in also.

"Sango was so upset when his Wind Tunnel had sucked him in completely, she just sat there and cried for the longest time. The only thing left of him was the beads he used to cover the Wind Tunnel. The beads sat in the middle of the hole that the monk's Wind Tunnel created... But suddenly Sango stopped crying and ran home to her children," Gosai said, her eyes closed now.

I gasped. The children...

"Sango went home to find that her sons had both inherited the Wind Tunnel, but her daughter was fine. Though her sons' wind tunnels weren't large enough to suck in a demon or anything, she still had to leave to find the master that had taught Miroku, so she could cover the wind tunnel on her sons' right hand."

I didn't realize I was crying until I wiped my cheek and found that it was wet.

But Gosai wasn't finished. "The Wind Tunnel won't be gone until we defeat the demon who gave it to us... My brother is the current holder of the Wind Tunnel."

InuYasha even gasped with me this time. "You mean _you_ are Sango and Miroku's kin?" I asked.

Gosai nodded. I wiped my face clean of tears and stood up.

"Do you have a priestess' outfit, from the Feudal Era?" I asked.

"Yes, why?" Gosai said.

I crossed my arms. "Let me put it on."

"Well, all right. I'll let you wear it," Gosai said hesitantly.

Gosai led us through the training room and two floors down to what would be the 'headman's' house. She led us to a room inside that had quite a few old clothes and such, but she took out a perfectly preserved priestess outfit. I took it and changed in a bathroom and gestured for the two of them to follow her. InuYasha adjusted his hat and followed, along with Gosai right after him.

I led them to the shrine room, where the paintngs of my friends and myself were located.

"Why did you want to wear that outfit?" Gosai asked.

I had my back facing Gosai, but I could just tell what her expressions were.

"You see, I knew Sango," I said, clenching my fists within the sleeves of the kimono.

Gosai blinked. "That's impossible! You're lying!" she shouted, her face contorted with anger.

I turned my head and locked my eyes with hers. "Why would I lie about that?" I asked, walking up on the platform in front of me, the one that held all of the candles and lead up to the paintings. I walked right in front of the picture of me, and then turned around, standing in the exact same pose as me in the picture.

"InuYasha, take your hat off," I said, and InuYasha obeyed. He did the same as I did, only with his picture, and we both looked at Gosai, gasped and looked at us like we were crazy.

"B-but how?" Gosai asked.

"A well where that sits in the shrine where I live. People used to throw demons down there, and they dissapeared through the time stream... I can pass through that too, as well as InuYasha. Sango is one of my best friends," I said, looking at Gosai sadly.

"Impossible!" Gosai shouted. She took a couple steps back from us and held up her hand across her face.

"Is this proof enough?" InuYasha asked, glaring.

Gosai looked at each of us and sighed. "I guess so. It's still going to be hard to believe you, though," Gosai said. I laughed a little bit.

"I need to go change now. I'll be back soon," I said, walking out of the room and towards the bathroom where I first changed. I changed into my school uniform and walked out of there, to be stopped by a boy, maybe a year or two older than myself, with short black hair and unruly bangs.

"Ah, hello there," he said, smirking. He walked closer to me and grabbed my hands.

"Would you... bear my children?" he asked, smiling brightly.

Somehow InuYasha had come down two floors at the speed of light or something, because he was right there to hit the stranger in the back of the head, hard.

"You're related to Miroku, aren't you?" I asked, glaring.

"He's my great, great, great, great, and some more greats, grandson. How did you know?" he asked.

I sighed. "Miroku did the exact same thing to every pretty girl he came across."

"What?" the stranger asked.

"Ah, Sukebei, you're here... I know it's hard to believe, but these people knew Sango and Miroku," Gosai said, and then she explained what InuYasha and I told her just a few minutes before.

After she was done, I took my hands away from this lecher and said, "My name is Kagome, and that's InuYasha."

"I'm Sukebei," said the pervert.

"Sukebei is my brother," Gosai said, sighing.

"So you are the one with the Wind Tunnel now?" I asked, putting a finger on my chin. He nodded and held up his right hand to show a covered palm with sacred beads keeping the fabric over it.

I yawned and looked at InuYasha, and then at Gosai. "I'm ready to turn in..."

Gosai nodded and led InuYasha and I down one floor. "These are the guest houses. They each come with a bath and food. Unfortunately, there are lots of visitors this time of year so you two have to share a room."

"That's fine... But who visits?" I asked, looking at Gosai.

"Friends, family, other demons," Sukebei said, walking down the stairs to meet us.

"Don't you try to pull anything with Kagome," InuYasha warned.

"I won't if you don't first!" Sukebei said. I blushed and InuYasha growled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" InuYasha shouted.

Sukebei blinked. "Man, this guy's thick. Anyway, why are you two staying here?"

"We need a stop before we go off to find Naraku," I said, following Gosai as she led us to our 'guest house.'

"You're going to find Naraku?" shouted Gosai and Sukebei at the same time. InuYasha and I nodded.

"You must take me!" Sukebei said, clenching his fists. Gosai nodded.

"Me too!"

"No way!" InuYasha shouted, growling.

"InuYasha! We can at least think about it!" I shouted, glaring at the half-demon.

InuYasha growled. "Fine, we think about it, but don't expect to be able to come along." Gosai smiled and led us to our room and we walked inside.

We stood there for a couple minutes before I said, "Why is there only one bed?"

InuYasha shrugged and blinked a couple times. "Uh... I'll take the floor..." InuYasha said awkwardly.

"No. We'll share the bed. We'll just... stay really far apart. Besides, it's a queen sized. It's bigger than my bed. I'm sure we'll be fine," I said, blushing slightly.

InuYasha nodded slightly and went over to the bed and sat on it. "I'm going to take a bath, InuYasha. You can take one after I'm done," I said. I walked into the bathroom and took off my clothes. Nearby was a washing machine and I threw my clothes in there and started it up, and then I went into the bathroom and cleaned myself up.

"What's taking you so long, Kagome? Did you drown or somethin'?" InuYasha shouted through the wall. I blushed and went lower into the water.

"I'll be done in a bit!" I shouted back, sighing. I suppose that it would be best to get out soon. I got out and dried myself with a towel. Then I went into the next room (no, I didn't go out in front of InuYasha naked) and got my clothes from the washing machine.

"Crap... It still has to dry," I said to myself, and I shoved the clothes in the dryer. I sat on a basket across from the dryer and waited.

Suddenly I heard loud footsteps and the door to the laundry room open. I sat there, a towel around my torso, looking at InuYasha, who was standing at the door. I blushed, but at the same time I started to get really extremely angry. InuYasha stepped back and closed the door, his face as red as a tomato, and I shouted as loud as I could, "SIT! SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!"

After my clothes were done I put them on and stomped into the bedroom, and went into the bed. "I'm going to sleep!" I shouted, and closed my eyes tight. I could hear InuYasha go into the bathroom and figure out how to use the bath. By the time he was done, I was fast asleep, and had forgotten about what had happened before.

- - -

I woke up early the next morning and saw InuYasha was still asleep. Being the responsible person I am (quit laughing!), I went over to the kitchen and started to make some breakfast for InuYasha and myself. I fried some eggs up and soon InuYasha was sitting on the floor, next to me, watching me.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

After finishing the eggs I plated them and set them on the table. I got some chopsticks out and we started to eat.

"InuYasha, I think we should let Gosai and Sukebei join us," I said, chewing on a piece of egg.

"No way. We are not letting those usless humans come with us," InuYasha said, also taking a bite of his food.

"INUYASHA!" I shouted, slamming my hand on the table. InuYasha looked up quickly and practically dropped his chopsticks. "Yeah, they probably don't have proper experience in the field, but they are trained. They need help, and so do we. We're going to let them come with us, and that's final," I said, standing up. I wasn't hungry all of the sudden. I brought my plate to the sink and started to clean it, and InuYasha stood up, too.

InuYasha growled. "Kagome! We can't--"

"INUYASHA! I WILL SAY IT ONCE MORE! WE ARE LETTING THEM COME WITH US AND THAT IS FINAL! SIT! SIT! SIT!" I shouted, turning around to glare at InuYasha. I could practically feel the heat from my anger.

InuYasha's face hit the ground three times and he groaned. I smirked and took his plate and started to clean that off, too.

InuYasha continued to lay there and groaned. "FINE."

* * *

xD Well, a little fluff, a little fighting, a little surprise... A little bit of almost everything. xD I hoped you liked the chapter. Though, there wasn't much there, it took me a while to get it written. I didn't know how to continue writing the chapter about half way through. And then I didn't know how to end it. Well, it's a good thing that I have the whole story planned out already, otherwise I'd be stuck. Maybe that's why it's turning out to be one of my MOST REVIEWED STORIES EVER! I want to thank you all. Already, almost half way through, it has more reviews per chapter then any of my stories (except that one-shot, Confessions. I couldn't believe how many reviews I got for that. Usually one-shots only get, like, two reviews), so I'm really excited about this story. This story also is really exciting for me, and has made me remember why I love writing. So, thank you! Thank you all so much!

Yeah, I'm not the most popular writer on here, but with your guys' help, I can get close! xD

I especially want to thank Maki Totakiyami (good internet friend of mine), who has reviewed for every chapter, inuyashalover0210, who has reviewed for every chapter since the 4th chapter, and an anonymous reviewer (who goes by the name of sandwich), who is also my best friend and is one of the reasons I want to get my writing up.

LUV 2 U ALL!

(if you couldn't tell, I'm particularly happy right now)

And now after the happy rush: … Mom has decided to go on one of her 'anger binges' again. OK, so none of you know about this, but whenever she gets angry, she takes it out on me. Not that I can blame her, because I do nothing. I'm just sitting there… Anyway… yeah.

**Next Chapter:** Kagome and InuYasha decide to let Gosai and Sukebei join them, and they head off. But the 'new' group finds an unmodernized village, with people who live simply. And how can the headman help them out, not to mention, why would he want to?


	12. Kagome's Temper

When I end this story, I'll thank you guys all again, like I did in the last chapter. Not to mention prizes. Ok, not real prizes, but story prizes. I obviously can't give you real prizes. Anyway, before I bore you all with my happy mood (who knows how long that will last?), I'll get on to the chapter.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twelve: Kagome's Temper**

After the fight at breakfast (if you don't remember that, let's just say InuYasha agreed to let Gosai and Sukebei along with us), InuYasha and I got ready (OK, _I_ got ready) and went upstairs... Well, actually we didn't know where exactly to go, so we just followed InuYasha's nose to Gosai.

We went to the training floor, and found Gosai and Sukebei sparring. Gosai was an excellent fighter, much better than her brother, though he was very fast, and just as strong. He just wasn't as skilled as his sister. Gosai carried a long steel weapon that looked like a scythe that the Grim Reaper would carry, except it had blades on both ends, and the middle was strong and slightly padded for her hands. Both of them had a sword at their sides (which were not drawn), and Sukebei was wielding a club of sorts. It had spikes at the end of the club and had a chain connecting it to a chain blade like Sango's brother, Kohaku, usually used to fight with. They also both had guns at their sides, but they obviously didn't need them

"You watch out, brother. You're slowing," Gosai said to Sukebei. Sukebei smirked.

"You're lucky I can't use my best weapon on you," Sukebei said, clenching his right hand tighter around the spiked club. He jumped over Gosai's double-bladed scythe and tried to strike her with the club, but she dodged it and held his club up with her weapon.

Gosai pushed Sukebei back and then turned her long weapon to face him and hit him in the stomach like she had done it one hundred times before. She didn't leave a scratch on him, even though he wasn't wearing armor (idiots).

"Now that you're done acting like fools," InuYasha said, startling them both, "can we get going?"

"Wait, do you two have a bow and some arrows? I forgot mine," I asked. Gosai nodded and she set off to find one.

"That's it? That's your super weapon? Wouldn't you need something stronger to fight demons? I'm sure that demons were much more dangerous in the _Sengoku Jidai_," Sukebei said, walking towards the wall. He laughed a little bit and looked at a fly crawling on the wall next to him.

_SWHING! PTONG! _My arrow embedded itself in the wall, right where the fly had been standing a few seconds before.

"Just so you know," I said, walking to the wall and yanking the arrow out, "I was aiming for the fly, not you." I showed the point of the arrow to Sukebei, smirking as he saw the squashed fly on the tip.

"Not to mention the purification powers of the arrow," InuYasha said, crossing his arms. "I wouldn't want to get hit with that..." I could almost hear him mutter 'again.'

"Gosai, thank you for bringing the bow and arrows quickly. I needed to prove a point to your brother," I said, smiling slightly.

"Uh... No problem... I guess..." Gosai said, scratching the back of her head. I could tell that she didn't really know what to think of that, considering that I had just almost shot her brother.

"Are you two ready to go?" InuYasha asked roughly.

"We have to change first, but then we can leave," Gosai said, smiling. She and her brother left for a room. InuYasha and I waited patiently (and impatiently) for the two of them to get back. When they did come back, Sukebei wore a black and green demon slayer's outfit, like Kohaku's, and his slightly long hair was tucked behind his ears. He looked a lot like Miroku, with weird clothes. Sukebei was pulling on some pants and a regular shirt to blend in with the crowd. Then I looked at Gosai, who was brushing her hair and putting it in a ponytail. I gasped.

"InuYasha," I said, looking at Gosai carefully. He turned his head towards me. "She looks exactly like Sango, doesn't she?" I asked, and he looked at her, too. She wore a pink demon slayer's outfit, which looked exactly like Sango's.

"I guess so," InuYasha said bluntly. I smiled as I watched Gosai finish putting her hair up and look at me strangely.

"Aren't you going to wear some clothes over that, Gosai?" Sukebei asked.

Gosai wasn't paying attention, but was actually slipping a long skirt on. She then put a sweatshirt on, to hide the sleeves of the demon slayer's outfit.

"Never mind," Sukebei muttered.

"Let's go," InuYasha said, turning around and walking off. Sukebei and Gosai grabbed their weapons and started to follow us.

I heard a small meow and wondered if it was the cat that I had met a few times before. I looked around and saw a different cat. It looked just like Kirara. Two tails and all... Maybe...

Gosai started to speak. "Hey! Look, it's--"

"Kirara?" I asked, walking over to the two-tailed cat. I kneeled down and stuck out my hand so she could sniff it. She sniffed it and meowed.

"How do you know her name?" Gosai asked.

I laughed as Kirara jumped on my shoulder and started to lick my face. "She used to belong to Sango. She helped us out a lot, and saved us on many occasions," I said, petting Kirara. Kirara was obviously happy to see someone that she knew, and I was happy to see her. "Did she have any kittens recently?" I asked, looking over to the others.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Sukebei asked.

"Just a hunch," I answered.

Kirara sniffed the air and saw InuYasha. She meowed and jumped over to him. She started to lick him and he groaned. "Look, InuYasha! She remembers you, too!"

"Funny, she doesn't seem to warm up to people that quickly," Gosai asked. I found that surprising. Even though Sango had been hesitant to become our friends at first, Kirara liked us quickly enough. Maybe over the years she had become less trusting?

Kirara jumped over to my shoulder, probably knowing that InuYasha wouldn't tolerate having someone on his shoulder for long, and I started to walk again, traveling down the many flights of stairs to get out of this building.

We walked outside and I looked over to InuYasha and we both nodded. Then I turned my head to Kirara and said, "Kirara, can you travel with us? I would like it if you carried Gosai and Sukebei on your back."

Kirara meowed and jumped down. Flamed engulfed her body and she transformed into the giant cat we all know and love. Gosai and Sukebei climbed on top of her (they obviously didn't fly on her much, because they had a heck of a time balancing on her) and I got on InuYasha's back. InuYasha jumped into the air and Kirara did too. People watched from down below, and I gripped my bow tighter.

"Can you catch any familiar scents, InuYasha?" I asked the half-demon. He shook his head.

"Not yet, but I do smell many demons," InuYasha said.

"Maybe we should go towards there, then. We might get some clues to where Naraku is hiding," I said. For some reason, I felt like that would be something that Miroku would say.

I hadn't realized it until then; the _Sengoku Jidai_, the Feudal Era, it had changed me. It had made me wiser, stronger, and more capable. Yes, InuYasha was always there to help and protect me, but even without him, I could take care of myself all right. I didn't notice that I had changed. I had even become more kind... I think. Actually, I'm not quite sure about that last one.

We traveled for a while, morning slowly turning into midday. The speed of InuYasha never ceased to amaze me, because by dusk we had left the huge city of Tokyo and had entered the mountain area and forest. My face was getting a little bit burnt from the sun, and also a bit windburned, too. I gripped onto InuYasha's shoulder tighter, and put my forehead against his back to protect my face. I was getting tired, and the cold that was starting to fill the air wasn't helping.

"InuYasha?" I asked. He turned his ears towards me, so I knew he was listening. "How much farther until we get there?" I asked as he landed on the tall branches on a tree and jumped. Kirara also looked a little bit tired, and Gosai and Sukebei were falling asleep in their seats.

"Only a little bit. Maybe five to ten minutes. The scent of the demons is very strong," InuYasha said, turning his head towards me a little bit so I could hear him over the wind.

InuYasha was right. About seven minutes after he said that, we saw the demons... But it wasn't like a whole group of demons traveling to attack someone, no. It was a village. A regular village that was isolated from the world, and looked just like a village that you would find in Feudal Japan. I gasped.

"It's a demon village," InuYasha said. Like I couldn't figure that one out.

"It's amazing," I said, my mouth hanging open. I glanced over to Gosai and Sukebei, and they were as shocked as I was.

"Don't attack those demons!" I shouted to the siblings. "They don't look like they will harm us when we land!"

Soon enough we landed in the middle of the village.

"I've never seen one of these in this time," I said, looking around.

The village looked like it had no modern technology at all. It looked like it was stuck in Feudal Japan, and it wasn't going to change any time soon. It reminded me of Kaede's village. There even was a shrine; I could sense spiritual energy coming from it.

But not a minute after we landed, we were surrounded by demons. I looked around and gripped my bow tighter, but I didn't grab for an arrow.

"Don't attack them," InuYasha muttered to Gosai and Sukebei, since I already knew not to.

"What are you doing here?" a demon asked.

Other demons started shouting things like, "Kill 'em!" and, "They're with the Demon Hunters!"

"Settle down!" I shouted, glaring at all of them. "We aren't here to harm you! We just have some questions," I said, looking around.

"How can we believe you?" the demon that first spoke asked.

I sighed, wondering how we could prove that we weren't going to hurt them. Then it came to me. "If we were Demon Hunters, wouldn't we have collars around the demons with us? Otherwise, they probably wouldn't help us out," I said.

"I didn't want to help you out anyway," InuYasha said, his arms folded.

"No one asked you!" I shouted at InuYasha, glaring at him. "Besides, I didn't make you come with me. You came here yourself." I smirked when I saw InuYasha realize he had lost the fight.

"Yeah, well... Uh..." InuYasha stuttered. "Um... You're ugly!"

I glared. "Just because you're losing the fight you insult me?" I shouted. "SIT!"

InuYasha's face hit the ground, and after a few seconds he pushed himself up and clenched his fists. "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" he shouted.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO INSULT ME!" I yelled back.

"WHO CARES?"

"I DO!"

"WELL, I DON'T!"

"GOOD FOR YOU! JUST SHUT UP AND SIT! SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!" I finished the fight and glared at the dog demon lying on the ground.

Everyone just stared at us. I didn't really notice until Gosai cleared her throat and I looked up.

"Ah... heh... Um..." I said, scratching the back of my head.

Silence.

This was sort of embarrassing.

I think I heard a cricket.

"_Anyway,_" said the demon who first accused us of being Demon Hunters, "why are you here again?"

Grateful for the broken silence, I answered. "We are looking for a certain demon, and have some questions you might be able to answer."

The demon thought for a minute.

"I suppose we can help you. But we might not be able to answer your questions. How about you just see the leader of our village?" the demon said. There were a few outbursts in the crowd, disliking this decision. "Quiet! If we let them go to the leader's hut, he can take care of them as he pleases. He can decide if he wants to kill them or answer their questions. Besides, he knows the most out of any demon here, and has lived the longest. If he can't answer their question, no one here can."

The rest of the demons seemed to buy it and they muttered their approval. A demon child (he reminded me of Shippo, except he was a panther demon) chose to lead us to the headman's hut. We followed, myself a little bit nervous, but Gosai and Sukebei seemed to be freaking out. I looked at them and glared, and they quit fidgeting.

The little demon stopped in front of a large hut and cleared his throat. In a slightly squeaky voice he said, "Just go straight until you reach the main room. It's sort of like a throne room and a living room combined.

InuYasha started to walk inside and I thanked the little demon before following him. Kirara, Gosai and Sukebei followed us, and soon enough InuYasha had found the main room. We could tell which room it was just by looking at the doors. There were two huge doors that were elaborately carved. The doors seemed to tell a story, but I didn't have time to look at it before InuYasha banged on the door.

"Just a minute!" a woman's voice sang through the door. Soon the door opened, revealing a beautiful _human_ woman, standing there. She reminded me of InuYasha's mother. I remember what she looked like from that demon that Sesshomaru hired to look like his mother. Though this woman reminded me of InuYasha's mother, this woman looked nothing like her. This woman had bright blue eyes and hair that reached just below her back, and it was black as night. Her bangs were a little unruly, but it looked wonderful on her.

She ushered us in and smiled brightly. "You have come to see the headman, right?" she asked as she walked over to a large chair in front of us. It was a swivel chair, the kind that you spin around and around on and then throw up, but without the wheels. I don't know how I knew it had no wheels, because there was a desk in front of the chair. I don't know how I know that... I just do.

Anyway, the woman who opened the door for us walked over to the headman's chair and quietly said, "Honey, there are some people here who are here to see you." She must have been married to him or something.

InuYasha sniffed the air and his eyes widened. "It's..." InuYasha said, not finishing his sentence.

The chair turned around. Sitting in it was a demon who looked to be somewhere in his twenties. He had red hair that was in a high ponytail that was fluffy and reached his neck, and it was a little bit curly. He wore a kimono with a fur vest over it, and around his waist he wore the pelt of a huge wolf demon.

But one feature caught my eye the most.

He had big eyes.

Big green eyes.

I gasped.

I said one word.

"Shippo."

* * *

DUN DUN DUN! Mwua ha ha ha! I'm so evil! OK, that wasn't really evil. But still. It was surprising, wasn't it? Yes, yes it was. I bet you didn't expect Shippo, did you? I sure didn't! Ok, I did, but whatever! 

**Next Chapter: **What is Shippo doing there, and what will he say once he finds out that it's Kagome and InuYasha? It _has_ been 500 years. I'm sure that his memory has faded a bit. And Shippo must have a story to tell. What will he say?


	13. Shippo's Memories

Well, now you get to find out what Shippo's been doing this whole time! Time for another story/explanation/tale. I have a lot of these.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Thirteen: Shippo's Memories**

"Shippo."

I stared at him and he looked at us, a small smile on his face.

"Do... do I know--" he cut off and his eyes widened. He gasped and took a few steps towards InuYasha and I. Gosai and Sukebei were forgotten in the corner. Kirara walked up towards us and jumped on my shoulder.

"K-Kagome?" Shippo asked, taking a step forward. The beautiful human woman stood next to Shippo, obviously left in the dark.

Then, suddenly, Shippo ran up to me and hugged me. He was taller than me now. I suppose that 500 years will do that to you, though. I felt him rub his head into my shoulder, and my shirt was getting wet from tears. I smiled and hugged him back.

InuYasha growled a little bit and folded his arms. Shippo stopped hugging me and held me out at arm's length. Then he looked over to InuYasha and hugged him too, but InuYasha showed him by hitting him upside the head and giving him a huge bump.

"Don't do that, runt!" InuYasha shouted, growling at the same time.

Shippo wiped away tears and laughed. "I can't remember the last time I was called that..."

Shippo turned to me and smiled. "Wow, Kagome. You haven't aged a day since I last saw you... And when I last saw you I could ride on your shoulder," Shippo said, smiling.

The human woman walked over to Shippo with a slightly angry look. "Shippo, hon, who is this woman?" I had a really hard time holding back my laughter. She thought I had a relationship with Shippo? That's funny!

Shippo smiled. "Ah... This is Kagome. I knew her about... Uh.."

"500 years ago," I said, holding up my finger.

"Wow... That long? That well doesn't really change you much, does it?" Shippo said, smiling. "Yeah, I knew her 500 years ago. After my father died I found Kagome and she sort of became my surrogate mother."

"That's a relief," the woman said, smiling.

"Kagome, Inuyasha, this is my mate, Naomi," Shippo said, introducing the beautiful woman beside him.

I smiled and bowed to her and then looked over at the forgotten siblings. "Those two are Gosai and Sukebei," I said. "They are Sango and Miroku's kin."

Shippo's smile faded slightly. "Really?" he asked looking at me. He nodded.

InuYasha smirked. "By your scent, I guess that hasn't been your only mate," InuYasha said.

"Sit! You pervert!" I said, glaring. Then I looked over to Shippo. "Is this true?"

Shippo nervously laughed. "Only because my other two mates died..." Shippo said, slightly nervous.

No wonder Naomi reminded me of InuYasha's mother. InuYasha's father also had a mate before InuYasha's mother.

"Who were they?" I asked.

"Both of them were demons, but my first mate died after birthing her child and my second mate died from a horrible disease," Shippo said sadly.

I was silent. "Oh..." I said, not really knowing what to say. That was sort of... Strange.

I heard crying and Naomi left the room.

"Did she have a child?" I asked. Shippo nodded.

"Yup. One child. A girl," Shippo said, smiling. "My other mates also had children, three all together, but this is the first girl I've had," Shippo said.

"She's a half-demon, isn't she?" I asked quietly. Shippo nodded.

"Though these are different times, half demons are still treated unfairly. Though, it's a bit different here, it's not much different from the rest of the world," Shippo explained.

Naomi came back with a huge blanket in her arms. I walked over to Naomi and looked at the child who was covered in the blanket. She had red hair and green eyes, like her father, but had huge fluffy fox ears on the top of her head, and you could see the tip of a fluffy tail sticking out of the blanket.

"What's her name?" I asked no one in particular, looking at the baby.

"Her name is... Kagome," Shippo said, blushing a little. I gasped and looked at Shippo. He nodded and I smiled.

"Would you like to hold her?" Naomi asked, holding out her child slightly. It took baby Kagome (that sounds so weird, calling someone your own name) and held her close to me. Naomi went over to get a chair for me, and I sat down in it, holding the tiny half-demon close. Her fluffy ears seemed too big for her head, and her huge green eyes were so beautiful.

InuYasha, staying on task, started to tell Shippo what we had found out. "Naraku is still alive," InuYasha said. Shippo sighed and nodded.

"I figured as much, since Miroku had died from the Wind Tunnel," Shippo said. He looked up at us and we nodded.

"InuYasha," I said, "I think Shippo should come with us to fight Naraku. I'm sure that now he's much stronger, and his illusions are probably more than powerful." InuYasha shrugged.

"Fine," InuYasha said.

"Wait, how come you had to fight to get us to be able to come?" Sukebei asked me.

Shippo answered, saying, "It's simple. InuYasha doesn't know you, and isn't as trusting towards you. I was in their group when we were fighting Naraku way back when."

"Five hundred years ago," I corrected.

"Yeah, whatever."

Shippo looked around suspiciously and said, "I must do something." Shippo got up and walked past us, but then turned around and came back behind a bored looking InuYasha, his head on his hand. I glanced down at baby Kagome, having a hunch of what was going to happen next.

I looked up when I heard InuYasha yelling and Shippo yelling something else. Shippo was giving InuYasha a noogie, and yelling at him, "HA HA! HOW DOES IT FEEL? IT'S PAY BACK,_ RUNT!_"

InuYasha got out of his grip and stood up next to Shippo quickly, and hit him on top of the head hard. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE?" InuYasha shouted.

"Kagoooooome," Shippo whined. I glanced at him and sighed. InuYasha flinched, thinking I was going to say 'sit', but I wasn't.

"Shippo, you're grown up now. You can take care of yourself," I said, staring at him.

InuYasha slowly started to smile, and then he started to laugh. "THIS IS FOR ALL THE TIMES YOU GOT ME IN TROUBLE, RUNT!" InuYasha yelled, grinning and running after Shippo.

The two of them ran in circles around the room and everyone, except me, was staring at them like they had never seen anything so strange as this. Shippo's wife (or _mate_, that's a weird word to use too) seemed completely shocked, so I could safely guess that Shippo never acted like a child anymore. It's amazing what old friends can do.

Deciding that it was time for me to stop them, I sighed and got up. I walked over to Shippo's wife and asked if she had a frying pan. Not questioning my need for a cooking utensil at this strange time, she left and a few minutes later came back with a huge frying pan. Perfect. I traded the baby for the frying pan and walked stood in a spot of the room that Shippo and InuYasha had decided to make their path for running. I readied myself, pulling back the frying pan like it was a baseball bat. Shippo would be the first to come, so I could just yell at InuYasha at the same time.

Shippo came running and when he was close enough I swung the huge frying pan and yelled out, "Why don't you just SIT down!" Shippo was stopped dead in his tracks and InuYasha was kissing the ground. I smirked and walked over to Naomi and returned her frying pan.

She looked at me strangely, but we traded off the frying pan and the baby. That little baby half-demon was so cute! I loved holding her.

I walked over to the chair and sat down. That's when InuYasha confronted me.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?" InuYasha shouted. The baby started to cry and I looked down at her sadly.

Looking up at InuYasha I glared and said, "Now look what you did."

"What?" he asked.

"InuYasha, just be quiet. You're upsetting the baby," I said, glaring at him.

InuYasha pouted and sat down, glaring into space. I looked over to Shippo, who was getting up now, and rubbing his head.

"Ow..." Shippo said as he walked over to his desk.

"Anyway, can you tell us what happened over the time that InuYasha and I have been absent?" I asked, adjusting the child in my arms.

Shippo rubbed his head where I had hit him and looked at us both sadly. "You're sure you want to hear this?" he asked us, and we both nodded.

Shippo sighed and then started to tell the story. "After we thought that we had defeated Naraku, Kagome left and InuYasha followed her. We needed to figure out a wish to put on the Shikon no Tama, so Kagome went to this time to think it out," Shippo said, telling the story like he wasn't telling it to us. "Soon she came back, and Miroku and Sango had left to live together, and I stayed behind to wait for Kagome and InuYasha. We left for the place where Miroku and Sango lived and they were happy. Kagome managed to protect the jewel from any demons that wanted it.

"A few years passed and we still hadn't decided on a wish to put on the jewel. Sango and Miroku had three children, two boys and a girl, and were happy. Kagome often left for her time, or this time, and InuYasha would take her to visit Sango and Miroku whenever she was in the Feudal Era. Soon, though, Miroku had discovered that the Wind Tunnel had returned, and it was growing faster than ever. He told me because he didn't want to worry the others, and he wanted me to protect his family, since InuYasha was hardly there anymore.

"Then, while InuYasha and Kagome were visiting, the Wind Tunnel had become too large. Sango and the rest of us followed him as he ran out of the hut and watched as the Wind Tunnel sucked him in. The sacred beads around his hand broke and he was sucked in. The beads laid in the bottom of the hole he made and his sons had inherited the cursed void.

"Only a couple years after that, Naraku showed his face and managed to steal the jewel. After months of trying to track him down, they didn't get even the smallest rumor, and Kagome went home. InuYasha followed her, but..." Shippo looked up at us. "You two never came back."

I bit my lip, saddened by this horrible story. But Shippo wasn't finished.

"I lived through many wars, wars with demons, wars with humans, and wars with both. They were all more devastating then the last. About 300 years ago I found a mate, but she died after giving birth. My second mate had two children, and then died from a disease, like I said before. Now I have Naomi.

"These last couple years I have been working to destroy the Demon Hunters. They had tried to capture me, but I hid well by disguising myself as a human girl. And about fifty years ago I founded this demon village." Shippo finished and I sighed.

"Naraku is behind the Demon Hunters," InuYasha said bluntly. Everyone in the room gasped (except for me), and they stared at him with wide eyes.

"How do you know?" Shippo asked.

InuYasha growled. "My stupid brother is the 'president' of the Demon Hunters. He is working there to try and find out information about Naraku."

"So that's why Sesshomaru wanted to learn how to transform," Shippo said to himself.

"YOU MEAN YOU TAUGHT HIM THAT TRICK?" InuYasha shouted. Shippo smiled and laughed nervously.

"Y-yeah..." Shippo said, scratching the back of his head.

InuYasha's eye twitched as he growled.

"InuYasha, settle down. If Shippo hadn't had taught Sesshomaru that trick, we wouldn't have learned that Naraku is still alive," I said, comforting the baby. InuYasha's outburst had made her restless.

InuYasha seemed to calm down a bit, but he still looked angry.

Shippo looked out a window and looked surprised to see that the sun was almost setting. "Wow. Almost night already. I suppose that you will all have to spend the night somewhere. You can stay in the guest bedrooms. We've got plenty of them," Shippo explained. He stood up and led us all to a long hallway with many rooms.

Each of us got our own room. I had a large room that had a blue theme going on. The bed was soft and comfortable, and there was even a fireplace, burning brightly. Outside the window you could see beautiful forests and plants. Though this room was nice, cozy, and comfortable, I was lonely. Now it was very late; the sun had gone down about ten minutes after we all got settled in our rooms, which was about two hours ago. No, I wasn't very tired, but I was bored.

I grabbed a blanket off of my bed and started to walk through the halls, which were cold. Soon enough, though, I found InuYasha's room. I slowly opened the door just a hair, and held in a gasp. InuYasha sat on his bed, wide awake and holding his sword. Tonight was the night of the new moon, and his white hair had turned black and his eyes a dark brown.

I knocked on his door and he jolted up, looking over to the door very surprised. I smiled and opened the door wider and asked, "May I come in?"

InuYasha shrugged, and I entered, closing the door behind me. I sat on the bed next to him, cuddled in the blanket that I had brought with me. "You don't have a fireplace in here to keep you warm. Are you cold?" I asked.

InuYasha looked at me and blinked. He shrugged again and said, "I'm fine."

I put my hand against his and shivered. "You are cold. Here, share my blanket with me," I said, offering my blanket. I threw half of it behind InuYasha so he could pull it over himself. It was a huge blanket, but even so, just that little bit of air made me shiver.

InuYasha pulled up the blanket around him and I scooted closer to him, crossing my legs like him. I leaned back against the wall and wrapped my half of the blanket around me.

Soon I was half asleep, half conscious. You know when you're just falling asleep, but you're still aware of your surroundings? That's where I was. InuYasha scooted closer to me and tightened the blanket around us. He leaned against the wall too, and soon I was leaning on him. That's how we fell asleep. Or I fell asleep. InuYasha didn't fall asleep until morning, when he changed back into a hanyou.

* * *

Aww... So sweet.

I can't believe this is the 13th chapter already/only! It's amazing. I'm a little over half way to the end. I love writing this, but the other fanfic I'm writing is suffering for it. I really should get to work on _You Can Run_'s next chapter. -sigh-

**Next Chapter: **Now that they have as much of the original gang as they can get, they've decided to go look for Naraku! But how much stronger can one demon be after 500 years? Not to mention all the technology he must be using to make himself even more powerful. How will InuYasha and Kagome beat him?


	14. Naraku's Attack

It seems like it's been a long time since I last wrote on this story, when in actuality, it's only been a few days. Maybe a week. I usually write on the weekends. Good thing I'm a fast typist, and when I get into it, nothing can break me out of it except a really big distraction. Hope you guys are excited to read this chapter!

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Fourteen: Naraku's Attack**

I woke up soon after InuYasha, because I remember him moving around a little bit, probably a bit uncomfortable with me leaning against him. Not that I could blame him, having someone lean on you all night could get you all knotted up.

I yawned and stretched a bit, and InuYasha jumped off the bed, his face looking a little bit red. I'm sure my face was red too, but I was wondering what he was thinking. He was more sensitive when he was human.

I jumped off the bed after him, my blanket still wrapped around me.

I returned the blanket and InuYasha led me to the dining room, where everyone else was. Good thing he could catch people's scents. We walked into the dining room and looked around.

They were all staring... At us, obviously.

"Uh..." InuYasha said, looking around.

"What?" I asked.

Everyone shifted so suddenly that I knew that they were all thinking the same thing... I just didn't know what thing that was! Those jerks. Why did they have to stare at us?

Gosai answered my question for me by asking a question herself. "Why did you two come in together?" she asked, looking at us both.

"Oh, _that_! I slept in so InuYasha came to wake me up!" I lied. I did it quite successfully, might I add. They all bought it... Or maybe they just acted like the bought it... But they returned to their breakfast anyway.

The only two open spots were next to Shippo, who sat at the head of the table, and the spot next to the open one, which was next to Sukebei.

There were also two new faces at the table. I guessed they were Shippo's two sons, because both of them had Shippo's red hair, but one of them had blue eyes, and one of them had red eyes.

I took the spot directly next to Shippo, and InuYasha obviously sat next to me, since that was the only open spot. Across from me, and on the other side of Shippo, was his current mate, Naomi. Naomi held baby Kagome (who is still really cute) and next to her was the son with blue eyes, and the son with red eyes was next to the other son. Actually, this is really confusing. Gosai sat at the other end of the table, and then it wen Sukebei, InuYasha, then me.

The son next to Naomi, the one with blue eyes, had short red hair and looked very masculine and strong. He wore a bright blue kimono that matched his eyes, and had dark skin. His half-brother who sat next to him, the one with the red eyes, had long red hair and looked quite feminine, without the boobs. Heck, I bet that he's mistaken for a woman every day! Not that his girly-white kimono helped. Maybe he wanted to be a girl, or he was mistaken for a girl so often that he just wore girl's clothes so people didn't have to be confused... Who knew.

"Kagome, InuYasha, these are my other two children, Michio and Kano," Shippo said, pointing to the two of them.

The one with blue eyes was Michio and the one with red eyes was Kano.

I don't know why I keep talking about them, though. They aren't important. I started to eat my breakfast, and Shippo leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"Kagome," he whispered so only I, and possibly InuYasha, could hear, "why is InuYasha's scent all over you?"

I started to choke on the food that I was eating (a piece of an omelet), and my face became red too. InuYasha, who had obviously heard with his acute sense of hearing, was blushing as well, but not to my extent.

"Are you all right, Kagome?" Gosai asked, concern written all over her face.

I cleared my throat and nodded. I finally quit choking and swallowed my food, but my face was still red. I glared at Shippo and he was smirking, waiting for an answer.

"Nothing like that happened, you pervert," I whispered back, a harsh edge in my voice. "Even if he died about 500 years ago, you've still become a pervert like Miroku."

"Kagome, I'm shocked you would think such a thing as that!" Shippo whispered back.

"Eat your food, _pervert_," I said in a normal voice. I started eating the rest of my food, a light blush still on my cheeks.

- - -

I walked out of Shippo's hut, breathing in the fresh air of the country. The smell of rain and the twittering of birds made me feel that I was almost back in the _Sengoku Jidai_. But I was reminded that I wasn't back there when an older Shippo walked out in front of me. I had almost forgotten the situation we were all in. Naraku was still alive, demons were slaves in the cities, and anywhere else where there were humans, and I had still killed a man.

I don't know if I'll ever fully recover from that mistake.

We started traveling soon after that, and Shippo had decided to come with us. He left Naomi behind, who was sad to see him go and gave him a good-bye kiss. Even though the thick rain clouds blocked out the sun, it was quite warm out. Soon it started to rain, a nice relief from the humid heat that would clog our lungs and make us sweat even more. But soon we got sick of the rain.

We weren't traveling for long when InuYasha caught a small bit of Naraku's scent, though the rain had washed most of it away. We followed it anyway, and soon InuYasha could smell it perfectly.

The scent lead us to a cave. How typical. Can't Naraku find a better hiding place? He always has caves, or something like a cave. What a loser.

We walked inside, all of us relieved that we got out of the rain. InuYasha waited for the rest of us to dry off (I think he shook himself dry like a dog while we weren't looking, I felt some water fly on me) and I handed a towel around to everyone that came from my bag that can hold anything.

Gosai got her double bladed scythe thing ready, and Sukebei already had his spiky club connected to a chain sickle out... Those were really weird weapons. And they both had their guns.

Shippo had a sword now, but it was just a normal sword, no demonic powers were coming from it. But he still had his illusions, and I'm sure that he could do more than just spin a top around.

I got my bow and arrows ready, and we started to go through the cave. As it got darker, Shippo used his fox fire to light up the cave, so we wouldn't trip on anything. Well, so the rest of them wouldn't trip on anything, I tripped on something even with the light.

"Clumsy wench," InuYasha said as he kneeled down. I glared at him, but my eyes widened when I looked down at his hand. He had held it out to me, offering help. I took it and he helped me get up off of the floor.

"Thanks," I muttered as I turned around, trying to find out what I had tripped on. My eyes widened again and I gasped. It looked like a big root, but I could tell it was one of Naraku's tentacles.

"We're on the right track," I said, starting to walk again.

"Careful, there's traces of miasma," InuYasha said, covering his nose. I nodded, sensing it.

"Miasma?" Sukebei asked.

"Naraku has a poisonous gas that can make you weaker, or sick, or could cause death," I said, then I looked down at Sukebei's right hand. "You don't want to suck it up in your Wind Tunnel, either. It'll be more dangerous for you than for anyone else here. And not to mention the Samiyosho, Naraku's poisonous insects. They can kill you, if you suck up enough and aren't treated."

Sukebei cringed a little bit and nodded, obviously afraid to use his Wind Tunnel now. I had to warn him, though.

Soon the miasma was so bad that the rest of us had a hard time breathing too. Thankfully, the two demon slayers that were traveling with us had masks to stop the smell. InuYasha refused to wear 'that stupid looking mask.' I tried to get him to wear it, but he wouldn't.

"It could save your life, though! The miasma is really bad," I said.

"No! I can't smell with those on, and I can handle the miasma better than you weak humans," InuYasha said. I glared.

"Fine. Die, then," I said, crossing my arms and adjusting the mask on my face. Shippo also didn't want to wear one, even if I tried to get him to.

Oh well.

Suddenly I heard Naraku's voice, and my head started to hurt a little bit.

"So, InuYasha, you are alive," Naraku's voice said, echoing around the room.

"What's it to ya?" InuYasha shouted at the walls.

Naraku laughed. "When I heard that you had disappeared with that human wench, I thought you might have died."

"I'm still alive and kickin'! Why don't you come out here and fight me, you jerk!" InuYasha yelled. Naraku laughed again.

"InuYasha," I said quietly, my head really hurting now.

"What is it?" InuYasha asked.

"His aura. It's different. It's stronger, and... He used the jewel. He's not a half-demon anymore. He's a full demon," I said, my brain pounding against my skull.

"What?" InuYasha yelled, and Naraku laughed again.

"The little priestess is right. I have become a full demon, and no one can stop me!" Naraku said, finally showing himself. Fire erupted around us, and my head felt like it was splitting in two. I held onto my head and fell to my knees, not even able to scream because of the pain.

InuYasha looked at me and growled. Turning to Naraku, who looked even more strange and fearsome than ever, he yelled, "What have you done to her?"

"It's my immense power. The Sacred Jewel's power effects those on a spiritual level more so than normal humans and demons. And since that wench is the reincarnation of Kikyo, she is effected more than most spiritual beings!" Naraku said, a smile on his face the whole time.

Though it felt like my body was being torn in two, I managed to slowly get up. My balance was almost shot, but I could still aim an arrow! There was no way that Naraku could get away with this. He's destroyed countless lives, and he used the sacred jewel. How could he live with himself?

It all boils down to the fact that he is that pathetic thief, Onigumo. Even though he may not be any bit human now, he was still Onigumo once. He was a hanyou once.

"Naraku," I said, my voice a little bit quiet, but unwavering, "deep down you are just a weak," I got an arrow from my quiver and aimed, "pathetic," I pulled back on the arrow, "HUMAN!"

I fired.

The arrow was true and somehow went through a barrier that Naraku had put up. It hit his heart and he exploded, but the flesh quickly regrouped and he stood before us once more. Naraku laughed and looked at me.

"Do you really think that I could be defeated by a weak arrow?" Naraku yelled, his tentacles rising up into the air and going towards everyone. InuYasha ran in front of me and sliced any limbs that were shooting towards us, Naraku's limbs falling off but then jumping back to his body.

Gosai and Sukebei weren't having much better luck, though they did have Kirara by their side to help them. They were obviously afraid, but they fought well. Shippo had become a very good fighter over the last 500 years, and could rival InuYasha.

But it was all useless. We couldn't harm him at all! He was attacking us left and right, and we couldn't keep up with it.

I dodged another attack when I heard Shippo shout out to InuYasha and I. I turned slightly towards Shippo as I strung another arrow, and shot it at Naraku.

"You two go back to the past! Defeat Naraku back then! We have no hope of doing it now!" Shippo shouted, blocking a tentacle from hitting InuYasha. "We'll stop them."

InuYasha nodded, but I couldn't help but feeling uneasy. "But what if you get hurt, or die?" I shouted back.

"Don't worry! If you defeat him in the past, we'll still be alive!" Shippo answered.

InuYasha grabbed my hand and shouted, "Let's go!"

InuYasha pulled me on to his back and he ran out of the cave at top speeds. The rain was coming down hard, and InuYasha started to run.

* * *

Ah... Another chapter finished. I think this was sort of a short chapter. It was kind of boring to me, too... oh well. It was a chapter. I hope the next one is better.

**Next Chapter: **After finding Naraku, InuYasha and Kagome must leave, an try to get back home. But demons with the strange collars around their necks start attacking. How will InuYasha and Kagome get back?


	15. InuYasha's Vow

I haven't written anything in such a long time (well, when I'm writing this, at least)! I can't wait to get back to work on this story. I think it is sort of fun... Anyway, here's the next chapter.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Fifteen: InuYasha's Vow**

InuYasha ran through the forest, his legs pumping as fast and hard as he could get them to go. He started jumping over the trees to make it there faster, and to see where he was going, since the rain had washed most of the scents away. We had a long way to travel, if we wanted to get back to the Bone Eater's Well, and it would take a long time. The sky was still dark and it was pouring out. I wouldn't be surprised if I caught a cold.

I turned around just as I felt a sneeze coming on, when I felt it go away and saw something really dangerous behind us. I gasped and said, "InuYasha, I think we have some company."

InuYasha turned his head and growled. Behind us were about 100 demons, each one of them with one of those freaky collars on them, but the collars were glowing red.

"I think they're being controlled!" I shouted over the wind. InuYasha nodded and turned back to face where he was going.

"Kagome, you need to keep them at bay. If you don't, we could get hit by one of their attacks," InuYasha said. I nodded in agreement and got out my bow. Turning around as much as I could, I got an arrow out of my quiver and pulled it back.

A small demon with huge teeth attacked first. I shot an arrow and killed it, but then the demons started to attack all at once. I shot arrow after arrow, but soon I was down to only two of them.

"InuYasha! I'm almost out of arrows. I can't stop them anymore!" I said while trying to knock away a demon with my bow.

A demon suddenly came out of no where and knocked me off of InuYasha's back. I screamed, and held out my hand, trying to grab on to _something._ The demon charged at me, hoping to get me in midair. Suddenly I felt energy surging in my hand, and I shoved it in the demon's face. Purification energy had gone through me in a time of need. I didn't think I could use it like that, unless I had the sacred jewel in my body. It didn't matter, though. What mattered is how I was going to stop myself from falling and breaking every bone in my body!

That was quickly answered, though, by InuYasha catching me right before I hit the ground. He continued to run, and then jumped up over the trees again. I was stuck in InuYasha's arms, and I clung to him tightly. I lifted my head to watch behind InuYasha, and saw more of those demons coming. I gripped InuYasha's shoulder tighter, and glared.

"InuYasha, we have to do something about them, or we'll be killed before we get anywhere near the well!" I said loudly. I saw InuYasha wince a little bit out of the corner of my eye, and I figured it was from the volume of my voice.

"We just have to outrun them," InuYasha said, jumping into the air again by using a tree branch.

InuYasha's speed never faltered; he may have gradually gotten faster. He never dropped me either, or even came close to dropping me. This would have been nice, if we weren't being chased by a bunch of man-eating demons, and if it wasn't raining. I'm defiantly going to get sick, now.

I grabbed my bow and got an arrow ready. I only had two arrows left... I needed to make them count.

I pulled back on the arrow and carefully aimed. Right when InuYasha was flying through the sky I let go. The arrow sped through the air and my sacred powers surrounded the arrow as it flew. It went through the flying mass of demons, destroying about half of them. I couldn't help but feel a little bit emotional about killing them. Especially since I killed Kane. But I couldn't think about that right now. I only had one arrow left.

InuYasha jumped once more and I just happened to turn around. There was the city; the vast expanse of Tokyo. This city ceased to amaze me. I haven't even seen close to all of it, especially being in the Sengoku Jidai for a lot of the time lately.

InuYasha started to lose the demons, and I was getting tired. I was soaked to the bone, and I was starting to get a little bit sick, but I felt very warm there with InuYasha, even though the wind and rain made me really cold.

I watched as the demons slowly faded into the distance and I put my last arrow back into the quiver on my back. I held onto my bow tightly and used my free hand to grip onto InuYasha's haori. I couldn't help but worry about Gosai, Sukebei and Shippo.

It wasn't long before I was resting. I was almost asleep, but still conscious. I mean, how could I go to sleep while wind was blowing at me and rain was pouring on me, making me really, really cold?

InuYasha made it to the city quickly and traveled on top of the buildings. By then I was wide awake and looking around to see if there were any more demons coming to attack.

"We're almost there," InuYasha said, jumping to another building. I held onto InuYasha tighter and nodded.

"InuYasha... How are we supposed to beat Naraku?" I asked.

InuYasha growled at the name. "I guess we'll just have to keep fighting. There's no way around it."

I sighed. "I suppose so. But..."

"Kagome, don't worry. We'll beat him... It'll be hard, but we can do it," InuYasha said.

I smiled slightly. "Yeah... I guess you're right. We will beat him. And we'll be able to kill him with our friends."

The rain started to lighten up and soon we landed in front of the shrine steps. InuYasha let me down, allowing me to regain my balance. It took a while, since I had just been carried for who knows how long and I was pretty dizzy. InuYasha looked around as I started to walk up the stairs to the shrine. It was like he was searching for any more demons.

I got to the top of the stairs and InuYasha followed. Before we could go to the well, I was stopped with a bone-crushing hug. I turned my head to see my mother with her arms around me. "Mom?"

"You didn't come home so I was worried about you. I knew you had InuYasha with you, but I couldn't help but worry," Mama said, a few tears falling down her face. Those tears weren't very visible in the rain, though.

I hugged my mom back and said, "I am going to have to go back to the Feudal Era. We need to stop Naraku, so none of this ever happens."

She let me go and smiled at me. "Try to be safe," Mama said, and she watched me go over to the well house.

"InuYasha?" Mama called InuYasha over and said to him, "Make sure to watch over my daughter. I'm worried about her safety..."

InuYasha looked serious and said to my mother, "I will protect Kagome. I promise that she will never get hurt as long as I'm around."

I stood at the door to the well house, having not heard any of the conversation that took place. When InuYasha walked over to me, I asked, "What did Mama talk to you about?"

"Nothing. She just wanted to make sure you were safe," InuYasha said, walking into the building. "Let's go."

I nodded in answer and we jumped into the well, hand in hand.

* * *

Much, much shorter chapter than most of the other ones. Oh well. That was more of a filler anyway. I didn't much like it. The one after the next one should be more interesting.

**Next Chapter: **Kagome and InuYasha go back to the Sengoku Jidai and they need to explain to Sango and Miroku what happened. They also need to go stop Naraku as soon as possible, but a cold stops them from leaving right away. All that running around in the rain didn't serve Kagome very well, did it?


	16. Kagome's Illness

Writing again. I can't seem to keep my eyes off of my newest Ranma 1/2 manga, though. It's so funny... It's also by Rumiko Takahashi (the creator of InuYasha, if you don't know). I already read it once, but I want to read it again... But I need to get writing or else I'll never finish this story! Surprising thing is, it doesn't have nearly as many chapters as my longest story, and yet it's almost longer than it, and I'm only about half way through!

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Sixteen: Kagome's Illness**

Once we landed on the bottom of the Bone-Eater's Well, InuYasha lifted me by my waist and jumped out of the pit we were standing in. I let out a small scream, but somehow I was used to it. InuYasha did do that to me all the time. InuYasha also decided to carry my backpack, which wasn't particularily heavy.

I took about five steps when Shippo bowled me over by slamming into my stomach. Yeah, he was excited to see me, but sometimes that was a real pain. It got annoying after a while. But I loved Shippo, so I couldn't help but let him attack me with hugs.

"Get off of her!" InuYasha shouted at the little kitsune. InuYasha lifted Shippo up by his tail and InuYasha growled at him.

"WAHH! Kagome!" Shippo panicked, waving his limbs around in a futile attempt to get himself down.

"InuYasha," I warned, and InuYasha got the hint. He dropped Shippo, letting the fox demon fall to the hard ground.

Shippo jumped over to me on the ground where I was still sitting and bounced up onto my lap.

"Did you bring any ninja food?" Shippo asked, pulling on my arm.

"I'm sorry, Shippo; you can't have any right now. I need to tell everyone something important," I said sadly.

"What's so important that I can't have some food before I hear it?" Shippo whined.

I smiled sadly. "I'll tell you when we get to Kaede's hut."

- - -

InuYasha, Shippo, and I walked into Kaede's hut where everyone else was relaxing. At my arrival, Sango stood up and hugged me tightly, obviously still remembering the incident with Kane. I hugged her back and then we broke our embrace.

"Kagome, you look worried," Sango said, looking at my face and reading me like an open book.

Miroku decided to speak now. "What were you two doing there? It doesn't take six days to have--"

Sango cut him off with her fist.

"As I was saying, you don't look like yourself, Kagome. What's wrong? I thought going back to your era would help you..." Sango said, her eyes filled with worry.

"There's a problem... See, my era is much more advanced, since it's the future. We have these metal boxes that you sit inside that work like horse carriages, and we don't have demons... Well, when we went back recently, I found out that demons just started to appear," I explained.

"Maybe they're coming back into existence?" Miroku suggested, rubbing his cheek.

I shook my head. "No one can remember a time without demons. I think something happened, because my family and I are the only ones who don't remember a time with demons..."

"Oh..."

"The worst part is, with a special type of collar that humans have made, humans have enslaved the demons!" I added, trying to keep what little sanity I had left under control.

Not having finished, I told them all about Naraku, the world's future, and their future. Not to mention that they were all stunned to hear what would happen to them... Though, I left out the part that Sango and Miroku got married. I figured that would come with time.

"We need to stop Naraku," Sango said, clenching her fist. I nodded and opened my mouth to speak, but was stopped by a sudden sneeze.

I went into the worst sneezing fit I've ever had. Seriously. I don't think I've ever sneezed that bad before.

Once I was done sneezing, everyone was looking at me like I was some sort of ugly giant bug. I blinked a couple times and was a little startled when I found out InuYasha had walked over to me. He crouched down and felt my forehead.

"You've got a fever," InuYasha said, frowning. He sniffed the air. "You smell sickly, too."

I frowned. True, I didn't feel my best, but that was quite unfortunate... Wait... SICKLY? Who goes around calling people sickly? I glared at InuYasha.

"We won't be able to leave tomorrow," InuYasha said.

Miroku thought for a moment and said, "This will give us a chance to get ready before we leave to find Naraku. We can also find any rumors about him, so we get an idea about which way to go."

"We can also get supplies..." Sango said, probably thinking about the things that we needed.

"What should I do?" I asked, looking around at every one.

"Nothing! You are going to rest and get better!" InuYasha shouted at me. I looked at him sadly, which quickly changed to a glare.

"InuYasha! You don't have to be so mean about it!" I yelled at him, clenching my fists.

InuYasha sighed and glared at me. "If you don't rest, you won't get better!"

I gasped at his expression. No, not the look on his face that said 'Go-to-bed-or-else,' the look in his eyes. I blinked a couple times, trying to see if I was hallucinating, but I wasn't. That look... Was it really that look that he had given to Kikyo so many times? I smiled sweetly and stood up to go to my little cot in the corner.

"All right, InuYasha. You win," I said, and I went to my bed... But I'm sure I saw equally surprised looks on my friend's faces... Though, InuYasha's was the funniest.

- - -

I woke up with another horrible sneezing fit and I felt like I was cold enough to freeze anything I touched. My head hurt, I felt a bit nauseous, and my throat was sore. I could hardly move without feeling pain... Not to mention I was really cold. I opened my eyes, but then shut them quickly, wincing at the light.

Kaede, who apparently came back inside her hut after I went to sleep, walked over to me and knelt down beside me. She put her hand on my forehead and gasped. "Kagome! You're burning up!" ((AN: I'm not doing that stupid 'ye' stuff... It's dumb, and if Kikyo doesn't speak like that, then Kaede won't... And in the manga Kaede doesn't speak like that at all.))

All I could do to answer was groan. Kaede removed her hand from my forehead and I heard someone walk in. "Kagome doesn't look very well," I heard Miroku say.

"No... Can you get some fresh water? Make it as cold as possible," Kaede requested. I heard her stand up and she walked outside.

The familiar bounce of Shippo's feet came towards me and I finally opened my eyes. I pushed myself up a little bit, and Shippo put one of the pillows that I brought from my world behind me. I thanked him and knelt against the pillow, being able to sit up with it.

I cleared my throat and asked, "Where's InuYasha and Sango?"

"Sango went to gather some herbs for Kaede," Shippo said, his usual cheerful tone lost to one with worry. "InuYasha went to go find some stuff for his 'special remedy', whatever that is."

I groaned, thinking about the awful stuff that InuYasha made me eat once before. Though it tasted awful, it quickly made my health better. Though, I didn't know what it was made out of...

Actually, I don't think I want to know.

Sango came in with Kaede, and Sango smiled at me when she saw that I was up. Kaede took the herbs that Sango was carrying and started to mix them up for some sort of thing to make me better.

I didn't really like all the herb stuff either, but it helped.

"How are you feeling, Kagome?" Sango asked, walking over to me. Kirara rode on Sango's shoulder and then jumped down next to Shippo.

"Worse than horrible," I grumbled, rubbing my forehead.

Kaede walked over to me and said, "You need rest. Lay down and try to get to sleep."

I sighed and adjusted my pillow behind me, and laid down again. Soon Miroku walked in the hut again and I watched him as he set down a pail of cold water. Kaede got a cloth wet and put it on my forehead, to help cool me down. It did feel nice, though.

"I'M BACK!" shouted InuYasha from outside. When he came in he was carrying an outrageous amount of food and dead animals.

InuYasha grabbed the big pot that Kaede hardly ever used and went outside. He came back shortly afterwards, the pot filled with water, and he put it over the fire. He started preparing a bunch of food and putting it in the pot. I watched, an eyebrow raised as he cooked everything. It was actually sort of funny.

InuYasha started to cut up a fish and I had to look away. Yes, I did kill demons, and I helped dress wounds, but I didn't _enjoy_ the sight of blood. Soon enough, though, I fell asleep to the sounds of InuYasha making some sort of medicine.

- - -

I woke up with InuYasha sitting next to me, shaking me awake.

"InuYasha, how can I get better if you keep waking me up?" I grumbled. I coughed a bit and InuYasha shoved a cup of that nasty smelling medicine stuff in my face.

"Eat," InuYasha said forcefully. He looked like he wasn't enjoying this, but I could tell that he didn't mind.

I smiled a little bit and took the cup and swallowed the lump in my throat. Well, here goes nothing. I took a big sip of the horrible tasting stuff and paused for a breath.

"Come on," InuYasha said, nodding. I took a deep breath and swallowed the rest of it in one big gulp.

"I can't believe she drank it," whispered Miroku in the corner.

Sango blinked a couple times and nodded. "That stuff looked horrible," Sango whispered back.

I smiled and said to InuYasha, "Thank you. I feel better already." And it was true. I did feel better... a little bit.

- - -

The next morning I felt well enough to travel (actually I felt like I did without a cold) and we all headed out to find Naraku. Sango and Miroku had little luck finding any clues about Naraku, but InuYasha was certain that he would be able to catch Naraku's scent.

I gripped InuYasha's shoulders as he jumped over a group of trees. Kirara flew nearby with Sango, Miroku, and Shippo on her back.

A gasp escaped my lips when I felt the presence of a sacred jewel shard. "InuYasha! I sense a jewel shard! It's over that way," I said, pointing my finger to the left of where we were traveling. InuYasha instantly changed direction and sped off towards the jewel shard. I focused my concentration on the jewel shard and realized that it was the piece of jewel that Naraku possessed. It felt powerful and tainted, and it also felt very large. I sensed another jewel shard, and I figured it was Kohaku's.

InuYasha sniffed the air and growled. I turned my head just in time to see a giant whirlwind fly towards us.

Koga.

Koga appeared next to us and started to run with us.

"What are you doing here, you wimpy wolf?" InuYasha yelled at Koga.

"I'm here to kill Naraku, mutt!" Koga answered. I smiled and turned towards the direction we were traveling.

If we couldn't defeat Naraku now, then I don't know if we'll ever defeat him.

* * *

Another chapter is done! I'm sorry it took so long for me to complete! I didn't really like it. Ugh. Oh well. 

**Next Chapter: **The battle begins! The group head off to fight Naraku, but how will they fare against him? It'll take everything they've got.


	17. Naraku's Battle! Part I

Yay! Another chapter! The big battle! Why am I excited? I hate writing battles! Grr... Oh, well... It has to be done. And I'm sorry that this chapter is so short!

Anyway, I've got good news! I've been chosen to voice act a character in the flash anime that Andorea-Chan is making! You can look her up on deviantART; it's called Neko Crisis. I play Megumi, a younger student. I don't have very many lines, but I don't mind.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Seventeen: Naraku's Battle! Part I**

Koga kept up the pace easily (not that I was surprised), and soon the tainted jewel was so strong that I could hardly stand it! OK, I could stand it... and it wasn't nearly as bad as Naraku in the future. Thinking about Naraku in the future made me determined to kill him once and for all.

Hey! Now that we've got Koga with us, I could persuade him to give the jewel shards to us when (and _if_) we defeat Naraku! Perfect.

Anyway, we traveled quickly towards where we knew Naraku was going to be, and soon enough InuYasha did catch his scent.

"The Samiyosho!" Sango shouted, pointing to a few poisonous insects flying nearby. InuYasha jumped over to them and sliced through them with his claws.

"Naraku must be nearby," InuYasha said, getting back on the trail of Naraku. I could feel InuYasha tense up a little bit, and I knew he was angry.

Soon enough we were standing in front of Naraku's fortress. I stood next to InuYasha and Koga stood next to me. Sango and Miroku were next to us as we stood in front of the huge stone castle. I swallowed the lump in my throat and clenched my fist around the bow I was carrying.

InuYasha led us inside the building and the rest of us followed, running as fast as each of us could go. Koga and InuYasha were the first ones in the building, and they were the first to get to Naraku. The rest of us followed, but Sango was stopped by Kohaku! I glanced over towards Sango, hoping that she would be all right, but I had my own problems to deal with. Miroku was stuck fighting Kanna, who isn't much of an offense, but is hard to strike.

I had the hard one. I was stuck fighting Kagura.

I knocked an arrow and pulled it back. "Hit the mark!" I shouted as I let it fly towards Kagura. Kagura pulled out her fan and destroyed my arrow with her Dance of Blades. I hardly had any time to run out of the way of her attack, and the one blade that did come towards me was slowed down by Shippo.

"Nice work, Shippo!" I shouted to him as he kept up his fox fire, which had slowed the attack. I ran out of the way of Kagura's remaining attacks, but then she threw another one at me.

"DANCE OF THE DRAGON!" Kagura said as she swung her fan around. ((A/N: that's the correct attack name, right?)) Many tornados formed and started to come straight towards me. I tried to dodge some of them, but it was hardly any use.

"Ah!" I shouted out as I was hit with some flying debris. I pulled out another arrow and shot it at Kagura, and her attack dissipated, though it didn't hit her.

Kagura threw another round of her Dance of Blades at me, and this time it hit! My quiver was thrown off my back, sending my arrows flying all over. I gripped my bow tighter as Kagura blinked a couple times, looking at me carefully.

Kagura sighed. "That's all you've got?"

- - -

Meanwhile, Miroku was having his fair share of troubles too. Every time he threw something at her, she would block it, and every time he tried to use the Wind Tunnel, the poisonous insects would come. Miroku glared at Kanna and ran towards her, his staff drawn.

"You can't get through my barrier," Kanna said in her emotionless drawl of a voice.

"Can't I?" Miroku said before hitting the barrier. On his staff were two sacred sutras, and they both hit the barrier directly.

Suddenly the barrier disappeared and Kanna blinked once, probably her way of showing surprise, even though her face didn't change at all. Kanna took a few steps back when Miroku tried to hit her again, and suddenly another barrier shot up, and it sent Miroku's attack back at him. Miroku groaned and glared at Kanna.

- - -

"Kohaku! Stop it!" Sango said, tears in her eyes. Her cheeks were red as she thought of the pain that Kohaku went through.

Every so often she would see a flicker of emotion go through Kohaku's eyes, though it was gone as fast as it came. She would shout things to him and he would start to look like the old Kohaku again, but then he would go back to Naraku's slave and attack her.

"Kohaku!" Sango shouted as she held up her Hiraikotsu to block an attack from her hypnotized brother.

Kohaku took another swing at Sango and she dodged it. "KOHAKU! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Sango shouted. Tears started to fall down her face and onto the ground. Suddenly Kohaku managed to knock Sango's Hiraikotsu away from her, sending it towards where I was fighting Kagura. It was out of reach for everyone, so no one would be able to help her.

Kohaku threw his chain sickle at Sango and it grazed her cheek and went past her. Blood started to slowly trickle down her face and she tripped over a rock behind her. She fell to the ground and in front of her was Kohaku, intending to kill Sango if it was the last thing he did.

- - -

Koga punched his way through the endless amount of tenticles in his way, sprouting up from no where. He dodged a tenticle as it sped towards him and he bounded up towards Naraku's body.

Koga was scratched up pretty badly, his legs were bleeding, and he had quite a few scrapes on his face.

InuYasha wasn't doing much better. He swung the Tetsusaiga at anything that came his way, but when he got rid of one tenticle, two more took it's place. He glanced at Koga and obviously was thinking that if the two of them couldn't do it together, then they weren't going to have much of a chance.

"I'm not going to let Naraku win!" InuYasha shouted to himself, boosting his confidence a little bit. InuYasha brought up his sword and then hit the ground hard, shouting out, "Wind Scar!"

The attack sped towards Naraku and cut through his tenticles, but they quickly regrew.

"Dammit!" InuYasha shouted as he cut through more limbs.

Koga was thrown back and landed near InuYasha. Koga growled and stood up, ready to fight some more.

"We aren't doing to hot, mutt face. You have any guess why?" Koga said, kicking through another group of tenticles.

"Keh. If I did, wouldn't I have done something about it?" InuYasha said.

"Fools!" Naraku said, towering above them, his gruesome body spitting out more tenticles and miasma by the minute. "You really think that you could defeat me?"

"Yeah! I do!" InuYasha said, growling.

- - -

I didn't know how we were going to defeat Naraku... or if we ever would.

* * *

Ugharagar! SO SHORT! This is shorter than Edward Elric! GAR! -is attacked by Ed- 

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Quit trying to pull my head off, Ed!

Anyway, I'm sorry for the short chapter. I wasn't going to make it any longer. I wouldn't be able to. It was impossible.

**Next Chapter: **The conclusion to this short (short, short, short, short, short) chapter is next, and you find out how this horribly written battle ends! Next, **Naraku's Battle! Part II**


	18. Naraku's Battle! Part II

Last chapter was so short! UGH! Well, let's hope this one is longer!

Hey, I know there's a lot of you reading this. I get around a hundred hits for the later chapters, and I think 21 people watch this story and 14 people have favorited it (at the time I'm writing this). How come only about 10 of you review (and about 5 of those ten every chapter, and 2-3 of those have reviewed every chapter)? I would really appreciate it if you reviewed more...

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Eighteen: Naraku's Battle! Part II**

We were all doing badly, and the only ones who weren't on the verge of death were Koga and InuYasha... and possibly Miroku. I tripped over a rock as Kagura slowly walked towards me, her fan raised for attack. I stood up slowly and looked down at my bow, getting an idea.

Kagura got dangerously close, but I didn't show any fear. I hid my bow a little bit and poured my priestess energy into the bow, like when I fought against Tsubaki.

Suddenly, when Kagura was within arm's reach, I swung my bow towards her face; Kagura put up an arm to stop it, but was shocked to find that it burned her arm.

"AHHHH!" Kagura's scream hurt my ears, but I poured more of my priestess energy into the bow, and she backed off, falling to the ground as she clutched her burning arm.

I ran back and got an arrow, knowing I couldn't kill her just with my bow, and I shot it at Kagura, straight through her heart. Kagura screamed in agony when she was hit, but before she turned into dust, she quieted down and seemed... peaceful. She looked over at me and smirked, before disappearing in the sudden wind.

Clutching the bow, I breathed heavily, surprised at what I just did. I was never much of a fighter, but just then I showed my true strength... This place changes you. I was the youngest of the group, and yet, I had just defeated a demon on my own... I hardly ever did that.

Suddenly I realized that I was in the middle of a battle, and I looked around... Closest to where I was standing was Naraku, and InuYasha and Koga working so hard to defeat him.

So that's where I went. To fight Naraku.

- - -

Kohaku threw his chain sickle down at Sango, who was still on the ground. Sango raised her arm quickly, revealing a blade under her demon slayer's outfit.

Kohaku pushed his chain sickle against Sango, and proved to be an even match with her. Sango started to push herself off the ground, but pretty slowly.

Unexpectedly, someone threw themselves at Kohaku, knocking him down and keeping him to the ground.

"Miroku?" Sango asked, standing up. It was indeed Miroku struggling to keep Kohaku to the ground. Kohaku tried to attack Miroku, but was stopped every time. "How did you defeat Kanna?" Sango asked.

"Kikyo-sama," Miroku said, turning his head to his left. Sango looked in the same direction and saw the clay priestess walking towards Kohaku and Miroku.

"Kikyo?" Sango said, her eyes wide with surprise.

Kikyo walked over to Kohaku and said, "He is under Naraku's control, correct?" Kikyo looked over to Sango and Sango nodded.

"He's forgotten all about me," Sango answered.

Kikyo shook her head. "No. His memories are just suppressed. I can release him from Naraku's hold, but he will have to choose if he wants his memories back himself... It may take a while for him to get his memories back," Kikyo explained.

If I were there, I would be wondering why Kikyo was here, and how she knew to come.

Kikyo knelt next to Kohaku and held her hands over Kohaku's face. She started muttering something that couldn't be heard and soon Kohaku was unconscious. Kikyo stood up and looked at Sango. "He will stay unconscious for a while. He's out of Naraku's hold, so I will take him away from here so he doesn't get any injuries." Sango nodded and Kikyo somehow managed to carry Kohaku away from the battle.

Sango watched as she left, but was brought back to her senses by Miroku and Kirara. They flew over towards Naraku on Kirara's back, ready to fight to the finish.

- - -

I glanced towards Kirara when she flew nearby, knowing that Sango and Miroku were here now. I jumped out of the way of Naraku's attack and strung another arrow. Koga jumped next to me and got rid of some attacking tentacles as I shot my arrow towards Naraku's head.

We were getting no where! We all attacked, but nothing worked. I tried to think of a plan while I dodged attacks from Naraku. Suddenly I felt the presence of the tainted jewel.

That's it! The jewel! I needed to purify it, otherwise, Naraku will keep getting stronger.

"InuYasha!" I shouted, and he jumped over to me. I started speaking, hardly loud enough for him to hear, "I need to get to the sacred jewel. He's keeping it where his heart should be. If I touch it, I think I can purify it, and then we can defeat him."

InuYasha smirked and said, "You've gotten smarter. I'll try and cut through. You follow behind me."

Almost instantly, InuYasha started to cut through the tentacles and I followed right behind him. I used my bow to knock away smaller tentacles that filled the spots behind and in front of me. InuYasha gradually made his way towards Naraku, looking back towards me every so often to make sure I was there.

I could see Sango and Miroku sending attacks at Naraku, and Koga trying to get to Naraku's main body like InuYasha and myself were doing. I turned back to InuYasha, and saw how close we were! I was so surprised that I almost let myself get hit by another one of Naraku's attacks. Though, I was wondering why he wasn't sending more attacks at us! Yeah, we were in the middle of a forest of gross tentacles, but he wasn't really attacking us much. It made absolutely no sense!

Soon we were right next to Naraku's body. My eyes widened as I saw what was before me. A slimy mess. Yup, Naraku had stooped so low as to become mud. Well, more like muddy organs, or whatever Naraku had inside of him. I looked around, and soon I saw the sacred jewel.

"I'm going in!" I shouted, sticking my hand in the mess of whatever it was. I cringed at the nasty stuff that covered my hand and tried to grab at the sacred jewel. I was just too far away! Suddenly the goop that I was reaching into started to slowly reach around me. I screamed and tried to break it, but it wouldn't budge. "InuYasha!" I shouted, looking to the hanyou who was trying to kill the tentacles that were coming at him.

He looked over at me and started to run over to me. "Kagome!" he shouted trying to cut through the black goop that was covering me up. I tried to grab an arrow, but my left arm (the one _not_ reaching for the sacred jewel) was starting to get surrounded by the stuff too.

"InuYasha, hand me an arrow!" I said, and he obeyed (for once).

I took the arrow and turned it towards the mud-organy-thing and sent my priestess energy into the arrow. My arrow glowed a light pink and I shoved it into Naraku's body. I could hear him yelp a little in pain from Naraku, but soon most of the sounds were muffled. I heard a muffled holler of my name, and I knew it was InuYasha. But I couldn't go to him. I needed to do this myself! I pushed the arrow in front of me, making it cut through the muddy mess that was Naraku. The priestess energy that I sent also kept the mud at bay, so it would grow back slowly. But, whatever mud stuff touched me seemed to burn me, especially the farther in I got.

I pushed my arrow at a particularly tough spot, and suddenly I fell through a wall. I looked around and it was like a small room... inside Naraku. HOW GROSS IS THAT? Ew...

Then I saw it. The almost completed sacred jewel, floating in the middle of the room. It emitted an eerie dark purple light; that was the only light in the room. I walked towards it, my right hand outstretched. I was only inches away from it when I hit a painful barrier. I screamed out in pain and sucked on my hand. I glared at the Shikon Jewel.

Determined, I tried again, but this time I was ready for the barrier. I pushed against it, no matter how much pain it put me in. I could feel my hand burning, and then it started to bleed. I pushed my priestess powers through my hand, more determined than ever.

I touched it.

Suddenly the barrier around the Shikon Jewel disappeared and I was holding it firmly in my hand.

I looked around and I could see straight through Naraku's body, like it was water. I heard his scream, the loudest scream I've heard ever. The pink light of the sacred jewel escaped in the gaps of my grip around it and the light shone through everything.

I couldn't believe that I was standing there. I was purifying the jewel, and Naraku at the same time. I glared and let my priestess aura flow around the jewel, speeding up the purification process.

Soon my whole body was covered with pink light, and I added my own energy to it.

I looked at InuYasha and shouted, "NOW! ATTACK!"

Though he probably only heard a muffled yell, he nodded. I could tell he was worried, but I could take it.

InuYasha ran towards Naraku and then sent his Wind Scar. I bet he shouted out 'Wind Scar', but I couldn't hear it. I was trying to stand my ground. I gripped the Shikon Jewel tight in my hand as the wind scar came straight towards me.

Naraku's now transparent body was destroyed as InuYasha's attack, his scream and body sent away into the sky.

I stood there, panting as he was sort of washed away on top of me, the now watery flesh washing over me and soaking my clothes and making my hair cling to my body. I looked around and saw InuYasha standing there, sniffing the air a little bit. Continuing to look around, I saw that Naraku's dark fortress was disappearing in the wind, and the sky was clearing up.

It was over. Naraku was dead.

I jumped a little bit when I heard a sudden clang, and turned to see InuYasha standing there, his sword on the ground and transforming into it's "old rusty" state.

Miroku took the beads on his hand and pulled them off, surprised to see only a small wind going in his hand, and soon enough it was gone. His smile was bright and he seemed to shake with excitement.

Ignoring everything that was happening (Miroku going over to Sango and twirling her around, but then getting slapped for a reason that should be obvious), I ran over to InuYasha and jumped up, locking my arms around his neck. I cried into his shoulder, and laughed a little bit two.

I looked up into InuYasha's face and he was smiling too.

"We did it," InuYasha said. He looked down at me and hugged me like I was hugging him. "We actually did it!"

* * *

Naraku is dead! Yay!

**Next Chapter:** Obviously everyone will be happy. Back in Kaede's village everyone is celebrating, but parties usually go haywire.


	19. Miroku's Protection

Ah, I'm glad that the last chapter is over. I don't like battles, or Naraku, but I do like fluff! Expect lots of fluff this chapter. Or at least some.

I was expecting this chapter to be longer... Gar... And I had NO idea what to call it.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Nineteen: Miroku's Protection**

After we defeated Naraku, Kikyo (everyone besides Sango and Miroku had no idea she was there) returned Kohaku to us and he rode with Sango, Miroku and Shippo on Kirara's back. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep while riding with InuYasha, and he had to carry me in his arms instead of on his back. I held the jewel close to me, and I also added my own jewel shards to it. Koga reluctantly gave the jewel shards in his legs to us, and he went off, though, he was still as fast as always. I didn't expect him to go off so fast without the jewel shards.

When we got back to Kaede's village, InuYasha woke me up and we walked the rest of the way. People would look at us as we passed, pointing at our cuts and bruises. They all knew that we were gathering the jewel shards, but did they know how much work it was?

We reached Kaede's hut without trouble, and we went inside.

"WE DID IT!" Shippo shouted, jumping off the ground about five feet. Kaede turned to us and raised an eyebrow.

"We defeated Naraku, Kaede," I said, a smile plastered on my face. Sango walked into the room, holding onto her brother's shoulder. Kohaku looked really worn out.

"That is wonderful news!" Kaede said. She sounded probably the most excited I've ever heard her. "We should have a feast, honoring your accomplishment."

"Ooh! A party?" I said, grinning widely. Kaede nodded.

InuYasha frowned. "Keh. Whatever."

I turned to him and smiled. "Well, just think of it as a reward for defeating Naraku!" I said.

- - -

That night the whole village was having fun. Kaede explained everything that wasn't understood by the villagers, and everyone made food for us. They even seemed to like InuYasha! I was happy about that. The children came to me and told me to play with them, and I played until the sun set and I sent them home.

The rest of the night was full of partying and drinking, and not to mention feasting. We all had our fair share of food, and I was stuffed.

To wash it down, I poured myself some water and gulped it down, not even tasting it. Unfortunately, I didn't notice what I drank until I looked at the bottle.

Saké.

GREAT! Now I was going to get drunk. And I drank a huge glass full! Not one of those tiny saké glasses, a whole big cup! Almost immediately I felt a little bit dizzy and happy, but somehow I managed to realize that it was just the saké working on me. I held my head and started to walk away from the party, trying not to stumble over anything as I walked.

My legs led me to the Go-Shinboku. The sacred tree. I looked up at it and touched the bark. I hiccuped and giggled, and soon I was just laughing, having to lean against the tree for support.

"Kagome?" someone said, walking into the clearing.

"Hm?" I turned to see InuYasha standing there, looking at me strangely. "Oh, InuYasha!" I said, and I giggled.

"Are you all right?" InuYasha asked.

I gripped the tree tighter as I started to lose my balance. "Oh... I -hic- accidentally drank some saké."

"How can you accidentally drink saké?" InuYasha shouted at me.

I glared, tears coming to my eyes.

InuYasha looked shocked and then started to shout out apologies.

The next thing I realized is that I was sitting on the ground, bawling into my hands and InuYasha was sitting next to me, helpless as ever.

I stood up and had a quick change in emotions, because then I was as happy as a kid in a candy store. I gripped onto the sacred tree for support and looked up in the branches.

InuYasha stood up also, obviously confused at my sudden change in attitudes.

"I think we better get back to the party," I said, taking a few steps toward InuYasha.

My foot caught on a rock and I started to trip, but I fell into InuYasha's chest instead.

I looked into InuYasha's eyes, a huge blush on my cheeks, and he looked at me. Even though I was intoxicated, I think he thought that this situation was familiar... But what do I know?

"I'm sorry," I said, my face as red as a tomato.

InuYasha shook his head and hugged me. I let out a gasp, but I let him hold me. I was just happy to be there. I was happy to be with InuYasha.

Suddenly I felt a presence down wind of us, which just so happened to be the way InuYasha's back faced. I knew he wouldn't be able to smell whoever it was there, so I readjusted myself to look over his shoulder. My eyes widened at what I saw.

There in the forest was Kikyo. She was just standing. She wasn't doing anything to harm, or to help. But, I could have sworn that I saw a small smile on her face right before she left.

InuYasha looked down at me and let me out of his embrace. I was sort of upset that he let go, but I didn't show it... Or mind too much.

"What were you looking at, Kagome?" InuYasha asked.

I looked at him and smiled sweetly. "Nothing... Just something from the past."

InuYasha shrugged and turned, walking back to the village.

"Let's go, Kagome," InuYasha said. "You better get back."

I started to walk again, but I lost my balance and barely managed to steady myself.

InuYasha turned and frowned.

"Keh. Clumsy wench," InuYasha said, walking over to me and lifting me up in his arms.

I glared, but ignored the insult. At least... At least everything would turn out just fine.

- - -

Back at the celebration, Sango had been happy, even though she left early. She walked into Kaede's hut and checked on her brother, who was asleep, recovering from the battle we had just fought and Naraku's influence.

Even though Sango was happy, she couldn't help but feel upset that Miroku had gone off to chase some girls. I can't blame her, though.

I don't know the reason she left the party, but maybe it was just to get fresh air, or to think... Or maybe it was to blow off steam when she just happened to see Miroku pulling his old 'will you bear my children' act.

She walked into another part of the village, and went into the edge of the forest. She looked around, thankful that no one was there with her.

Sango sat down and sighed, closing her eyes.

"Stupid monk... Why does he have to do that?" Sango asked herself, clenching her fist.

Sango jumped up when she heard a rustle in the bushes and she stood up, ready to defend herself. She relaxed when she realized it was just a drunken man, coming from the party. Either he had lost his way, or he was doing some other thing that I couldn't think about...

Sango sighed in relief, and looked at the man who was walking towards her.

"Excuse me, sir, are you all right?" Sango asked politely.

The man walked towards her and started to laugh a bit, and Sango got the _strangest_ feeling that it was a really bad thing to be there right now. She started to back away from the strange man, but he just kept walking towards her.

"Back off!" Sango shouted, readying herself to fight him off if she needed to.

"You're a pretty one, aren't you?" the man said in a nasty voice.

"STAY AWAY!" Sango ran towards the man and punched him in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. He grabbed onto her haori and pulled it down with him, but she managed to rip it away from him, causing half of her haori to come off.

"Great! Just get away, you bastard!" Sango yelled, kicking the man's hand away from the sleeve he was gripping. She started to run, but he got up amazingly quick and tackled her to the ground.

"GET OFF OF HER!" yelled a male voice, and Sango felt the man getting lifted off her back. She turned just in time to see Miroku lifting the man up and punching him in the face. Obviously frightened, he ran off, holding the part of his face that was punched.

Miroku crouched next to Sango, who was still laying on the ground, and grabbed her hand gently. Unexpectedly, he pulled her up and hugged her.

"Are you all right, Sango?" Miroku asked. Sango didn't realize it, but, she was crying.

"Yes... Thank you," Sango said, pulling away from Miroku's embrace.

Sango looked at Miroku, her eyes filled with mixed emotions. But, suddenly she blushed and realized what she was wearing... or not wearing.

Miroku obviously had seen too, because he was grinning so wide that you could fit all of Tokyo in his mouth, but Sango instantly wiped that grin off of his face, _after_ getting her haori back on.

She readjusted her haori and stood up. Walking away from the monk, she stopped and looked back at him, who was smiling sweetly.

"Come on, Miroku," she said to him, and she held out her hand.

He got up and walked with her, grasping her outstretched hand.

"Miroku... Thanks again."

* * *

Aww... Even though there were some dangerous stuff, they all figured it out... AND WITH FLUFF.

**Next Chapter:** Now that Naraku is dead, Kagome needs to go home, and recuperate... And to see if her world has gone back to normal.


	20. Kikyo's Request

Ah, it's good to be back to typing again. I'm going to have fun with this chapter; something big is going on.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty: Kikyo's Request**

I awoke with a horrible headache. Sure, it was only one glass of saké, but it was a big glass of saké! Ugh. How could I ever mistake saké for water? Who does that? Well, if you don't pay attention to taste, I guess it would be pretty easy...

I slowly sat up, holding my head in my hands. I slowly managed to open my eyes, but I squeezed them shut almost instantly. The light was a little much right now.

After getting used to the light I opened my eyes and looked around, having to squeeze my eyes shut every once in a while. I turned and saw Kaede next to a pot by the fire. I hardly remember anything from last night, besides the fact that after I went away from the party I talked with InuYasha and then we went back to the party... I don't remember a thing after that. I must have went to sleep in Kaede's hut.

No one else was in the hut, so I got up and left without a word to Kaede. She looked busy anyway.

I walked outside, but the bright sunlight caused my head to hurt and I closed my eyes immediately.

Then I remembered something. The jewel!

I sensed it over near the Go-Shinboku, the sacred tree.

I ran as fast as I could to get to it, my legs straining as I struggled to keep the pace I had set for myself.

When I neared the Go-Shinboku I slowed to a stop near the edge of the forest, breathing hard and looking at who held the jewel in front of me.

Kikyo stood there, holding the jewel and looking at the single missing piece that was Kohaku's shard. Sensing my presence, she turned to see me standing there, catching my breath. After seeing me, she turned back to the jewel, like an invitation to come next to her. I took a few hesitant steps forward, but then started walking at a normal pace.

I stopped next to Kikyo, looking at the jewel that she held in her hand. There was a small piece missing from the jewel, the spot where Kohaku's jewel shard would be placed... We just had to figure out a way to let him live and get the jewel shard at the same time. Sesshomaru was pretty much out of the question... He wasn't much of a ' help out the humans' sort of person.

"In order for the jewel to disappear, it needs to have a pure and selfless wish granted upon it," Kikyo said, closing her eyes.

I knew all of this. Why was she telling me this now? "Yes, I know."

"I can tell that something troubles you... Are you feeling apprehension about something?" Kikyo asked.

Kikyo seemed to want to help me, but why? Yes, she used to hate me, but what now? Why is she being so kind to me? There had to be a bigger reason.

"Yes... I am afraid to go back to my time. Recently, I found out that we didn't kill Naraku, and he was there in the future. For some reason demons appeared in my era, where no demons were before... Though, now I'm almost certain that he is dead," I answered. "I am a little bit afraid to go back, even though I know that there won't be demons in my era anymore."

Kikyo turned to me and held out the jewel. I put my hand out and she set the jewel in my hand and covered the jewel with her own hand.

"You need to make sure that this does not fall into the hands of evil," Kikyo said to me. "But... You also need to come up with a wish that is pure. Are you sure you can do that?"

It was like she was testing me! She lifted her hand from the jewel and I clenched it in my fist. I nodded, my eyes gently closing.

"That's good," Kikyo said, looking at me and smirking. I looked at her, my eyebrows raised.

"Why did you really come here, Kikyo?" I asked her as she started to walk away.

"You mean, did I come here to say anything about InuYasha?" Kikyo asked. I blushed a little, but my face didn't change. "I am one of the dead. I can't have InuYasha now. You don't belong in this world... But you're the best thing he has. And, though I suppose I am a bit jealous of you being able to be with InuYasha, I don't think I know anyone better for him."

I stood there, trying to blink away the tears that were starting to form in my eyes. I suppose that was the closest thing to a compliment that I was ever going to get from Kikyo... But... The thing is, I was sort of sad for her. She couldn't ever be with InuYasha again, even though they once loved each other so much.

"Kikyo... Thank you," I said, holding the jewel close to me.

"Just... Take care of InuYasha," Kikyo said, her tragic gaze turning away from me. It was obviously hard for her to say that, but she managed to say it anyway.

Kikyo walked away from me and disappeared into the forest, leaving me to stand there with the jewel in my hand... How had she gotten the jewel anyway? I needed to keep better tabs on it.

I sensed another presence and turned to see InuYasha standing there, looking at me with glazed eyes... Well, he wasn't really looking at me, more like looking through me. I could tell that he knew who was here.

"You came here when you caught Kikyo's scent, didn't you?" I asked, glaring. Though Kikyo and I were on decent terms, that didn't stop me from being angry at InuYasha for things involving Kikyo.

InuYasha glared. "No," he answered defensively.

"Liar," I said, turning away from him.

I heard quick footsteps and was startled when InuYasha turned me to face him.

"I am not lying. I came here because I was worried about you," InuYasha said.

Though at first that took me off guard, I glared again and said, "And you were looking for Kikyo. I can tell by the look in your eyes."

"Maybe I was coming here to find Kikyo! That doesn't mean that I can't be worried about you too!" he shouted at me, but then blushed. I blushed also.

What was he doing? He was never like this before! The only time I've ever seen him like this is with...!

My eyes widened at the sudden realization.

"InuYasha...?" I said, a little bit worried. I couldn't help but feel confused and startled at the same time. It was a bit nerve-racking. My heart was pounding in my chest and my legs felt weak. I could hardly keep standing. But even though I was getting butterflies, I liked being there.

"Kagome..." InuYasha said, closing his eyes. "Let's get going. We need to check on your world." InuYasha dropped his arms from my shoulders and started to walk towards the well, not looking back at me. I followed him, holding in a deep sigh. It was like he wanted to tell me something, but he couldn't.

What could it be?

We stopped at the well and I looked down into the dark depths. A demon had recently been thrown in there; the bones were still at the bottom of the well. I put a hand on the well and then jumped over it, falling through to my time.

I climbed out of the well just when InuYasha came through to my time.

I couldn't help but smile a little bit. I was finally going to go back home, and it was going to be like it should be. InuYasha hesitated behind me, but I didn't notice. I just went through the door to exit the well house and took a couple steps outside. I looked around and smiled, but stopped.

Something was wrong.

I looked down to see the same three-tailed cat demon rubbing against my leg.

"No..." I whispered, looking towards the street. I couldn't believe it. People walking on the sidewalk had demons walking next to them, holding bags and other sorts of things, all of the demons wearing the strange collars.

InuYasha walked behind me and looked around. So that's why he hesitated, he smelt the demons.

I fell to my knees and put my hands on the ground, trying to support myself. I couldn't keep the tears in, and they just started to slowly run down my face and onto the ground.

"Kagome..." InuYasha said, sitting next to me.

The demons were still here... even though we had defeated Naraku.

It was like a hell on earth.

I was in the middle of it.

* * *

MWUA HA HA HA HA! You didn't expect that, did you? NO! Ha ha ha ha!

I showed you! I bet you're all shocked to find that I had the biggest twist ever! HA HA HA

**Next Chapter:** Kagome and InuYasha haven't fixed the future at all. Is Naraku somehow still alive? What else could it be?


	21. Kagome's Consequences

Ha! Mwua ha ha!

Yeah, OK, it wasn't a HUGE twist, but still!

Sorry that I didn't update sooner, but I was off on a trip. I was gone for longer than I thought I would be. And then there was that stupid glitch.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty-One: Kagome's Consequences**

I knelt on the ground, my tears starting to come down faster than before. What happened? Was Naraku still alive? According to Shippo's and Gosai's stories he came back after we defeated him! But it's not like fate is set in stone or anything... The future changed, didn't it?

I clenched my fist and could feel my fingers scraping the ground, picking up stray pebbles that stuck under my nails.

I felt InuYasha's presence near me, and I heard his sniffing.

"I don't sense Naraku."

My eyes widened and I looked up at him. "WHAT? How can that be?"

Naraku was the one who was behind enslaving all the demons, wasn't he? He came back, according to the story. But, maybe something happened to change that...

I looked around, wiping the tears from my eyes. I didn't sense any demons that were very powerful, besides Sesshomaru, but he was 'helping.'

"I don't sense Naraku either..." I said, amazed.

I took out the Sacred Jewel and held it out for me to see. It looked pure and bright; it sent a powerful feeling through my body.

I clenched the Jewel and looked at InuYasha. He seemed to be thinking hard, his eyes fixed on the ground and calculating.

Those eyes of his... they were so strange, but they were so pretty.

Suddenly his eyes widened.

"Kagome..."

"What?" I asked softly, wiping away a stray tear.

He turned his gaze towards me. "What happened before we came to this time and found out what happened to the demons?"

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him like he was nuts. What was he getting at? I had no idea what he was trying to say.

"What happened?" I repeated, thinking hard. "We fought demons..."

InuYasha shook his head. "Something that you wanted to forget."

I gasped. "Kane..." Turning my head, I saw InuYasha nod.

"Don't you think that might have something to do with it?" InuYasha asked, standing up.

I frowned. "B-but how would that wor--" then I gasped. How could I forget? Kane had told us a story about what he did.

- - -

"_I am Kane, a traveling demon slayer," said the man laying on the bed, looking around at all of us as best he could._

"_A demon slayer!" Sango said, startled. She got up and walked over next to me, gripping onto my arm. You could tell she was curious and slightly afraid about what he would say next. "Did you live in the demon slayers village?" Sango asked. If he lived in her village, wouldn't you think that Sango would find him slightly familiar? Her father was pretty much the leader, from what I know._

"_I lived in the demon slayer village in the west before I left to help other people. I can see you lived in one of them also. Your weapon is from the village that was destroyed, wasn't it?" Kane asked. Sango looked at the ground and nodded. I felt bad for her and her loss. She lost her village and her family. I didn't know what that felt like. The only hardship I've ever had to face was going through the well. "I feel bad for your village." Sango nodded once more._

"_Why don't you all sit down?" Kane suggested, breathing in deeply. I sat with Sango sitting next to me. I looked at the ground, not being able to take those green eyes anymore._

"_As I said, I lived in a demon slayer village to the west. As I became stronger the demons became scarce. Soon there were none trying to attack our area and village. I remained undefeated by any demon and I traveled around the lands to help other people and villages, destroying any demons in my way._

"_I soon came upon a small village with a very powerful priestess. Though she was old, she knew many things and was very talented. She told me I must go defeat a demon in the east, for most of the sacred jewel was held by him. I followed the priestess's advice and started traveling to the east, stopping by towns along the way to help with any demon problems."_

_- - -_

"Since I killed Kane, I probably prevented him from killing a lifetime's worth of demons!" I said, clenching my fist.

InuYasha frowned. "How do we fix this?"

"Kane was a demon slayer," I said, folding my arms. "We need someone to take his place."

InuYasha suggested the obvious, "What about Sango?"

I nodded. "That's our best bet. We'll have to go ask her."

InuYasha agreed and we walked towards the well house, the short distance feeling like a mile to me.

As I stood before the well, I looked down into it and sighed.

"Kagome?" InuYasha asked.

"This... This is all my fault," I said, folding my arms and glaring at the floor.

"No, it isn't," InuYasha said, gripping the side of the well.

"How can you say that?" I asked, glaring at him. "It _is_ my fault, and you know it. It's always been my fault. The Shikon Jewel, Kane's death... I'm the one to blame."

"Kagome! Listen to yourself!" InuYasha said, turning towards me and gripping my shoulders. "It's _not_ your fault! You didn't know that Kane was there! I didn't even know it! Anyone could make that mistake. That's what happens when you fight. Those things happen."

"No one I know makes those mistakes," I said, looking at the ground.

InuYasha sighed. "Are you sure about that?"

"What?"

InuYasha looked at the floor painfully. "Haven't you ever wondered how Kaede lost her eye?" I looked at InuYasha carefully as he continued, "Kikyo's arrow shot through a demon, but it didn't destroy the demon. The demon's claw was sent through Kaede's eye." My eyebrows practically raised off my head.

I never imagined that Kikyo would make a mistake like that.

"Are you telling the truth?" I asked, looking at InuYasha. I knew that he was, but I couldn't help but ask anyway. He nodded. Strangely enough, that made me feel better. I don't know how, but, that didn't matter.

I gripped the side of the well and said, "We better get going."

I jumped over the side of the well and InuYasha followed, both of us going through the time stream.

Who knew that it wasn't Naraku's fault that the demons were still there?

I never thought that it could be anything but. I guess that InuYasha can be a great help sometimes, even if he isn't fighting.

Right before we landed in the bottom of the well I turned towards InuYasha and smiled at him.

"InuYasha?" I said, smiling.

"Hm?" he replied, looking at me strangely. It was like he was shy.

"Thank you," I said sweetly, before turning towards the side of the well and climbing out of it.

InuYasha blinked a couple times before jumping out of the well and following me. Now we had to talk to Sango.

* * *

Sorry that this chapter isn't very long... Oh well. You can't be too upset since the story is 133 pages on AppleWorks. I wonder how long it is on Word? (I just found out it's 135 pages on Word)

**Next Chapter:** Kagome and InuYasha have to talk to Sango, but what will her reaction be?


	22. Sango's Decision

Well, here we are again! Another chapter of A Change in Our Future! Now, I'm bored. Better get to writing.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Sango's Decision**

InuYasha and I walked to the village, our brisk pace never faltering. We needed to find Sango, and we had to get her to agree to fight demons...

Yeah, she is a demon slayer, but asking her to fight demons for the rest of her life... That's a lot to ask of someone. How could we get her to agree? And what about Miroku? What would he think of this? He wants to marry her...

"InuYasha," I started, turning my head towards him, "what if Sango says no? What if she won't take Kane's place?"

InuYasha obviously hadn't thought about that. His eyes widened and a frown formed on his face. "Well, we'll figure that out if that happens," InuYasha said, looking confident once more."

"Yeah, I guess we will," I agreed sadly.

Quickly we made it to Kaede's hut, and once inside everyone was startled to see me standing there.

"Kagome-sama! What are you doing back here so soon?" Miroku asked, looking worried.

"Killing Naraku didn't work," I said right away. I ignored the gasps and continued on, saying, "The demons are still in my era and they're still slaves. InuYasha and I realized that Kane's death was the cause of this. Sango, I have a very important question to ask you." I was surprised that I was so strong during all of this, managing to not feel much sadness in saying Kane's name. I guess I was finally getting over it.

"What do you need to ask me, Kagome?" Sango asked, looking a bit worried.

"We need you to take Kane's place and fight demons. Will you?" I asked, looking determined. I knew this wasn't going to be an easy choice, and if she said no, I hoped that she didn't hate me.

Sango raised an eyebrow. "I already fight demons," Sango answered.

"That's not what I mean. What I mean is, we want you to fight demons like Kane did. He was fighting them and slaying so many that the whole population of demons went down," I explained, hoping she would understand.

Sango frowned. "You mean you want me to fight demons for the rest of my life?" I cringed at her words, but nodded in reply. "I don't know if..."

I frowned. "I know it's a lot to take in and think about. You don't have to answer now. Just think about it," I said, sighing.

- - -

The next day was calmer, and since we didn't really have to do any more jewel shard hunting we could just lay around. Though, after a while, InuYasha couldn't take much more of just sitting there. Yeah, he got in a couple fights with Koga (who was there because he didn't like giving up his shards; he wanted to keep them for as long as he could), but he was itching for a real fight where he could beat something up without being sat by me.

Sango looked to be thinking hard about what we asked her, but also seemed to be happy spending time with her brother, who had also come with us.

I could tell that Sango was torn between her feelings, and the fact that she was one of the few people who could help us.

That night Sango and I decided to take a bath.

The steam from the water rose up into the sky and a fog seemed to creep along the ground. Sango sighed, looking at me through the steam. The forest sang in the wind; the leaves rustled and the clouds moved quickly overhead. I looked up at the sky, smiling slightly. You could never see the stars so clearly in my time. It was nearly impossible. The waxing moon stared down at us, even though less than half of it could be seen.

"Kagome..." Sango started, moving lower into the water, so that the only part of her that wasn't submerged was her neck and head. "I've made my decision."

"You have?" I asked, a little bit excited, but afraid at the same time. I was scared for her; she was one of my best friends.

Sango nodded. "I've decided... that I won't do it. I need to take care of my brother, and I also want to settle down a bit," Sango explained. "And... I... I want to..."

"You want to spend time with Miroku?" I asked. Sango blushed, but nodded. "I figured as much. I wasn't really expecting you to agree, you wouldn't be able to live your life the way you wanted to, and I wouldn't want to take that away from you."

Sango smiled slightly and said, "Thank you for understanding, Kagome."

I shook my head and said, "Don't say that. I should have never asked you such an unreasonable thing."

"You had to. Your world... No, the future, was at stake, but you're going to let me live my life the way I want to," Sango said, her eyes brimming with tears.

I smiled. "You deserve at least that much, Sango."

- - -

I told InuYasha everything about what Sango said the night before, and I think he started to understand what was going on between Sango and Miroku. Though, he couldn't really tell that much.

I sighed, sitting next to InuYasha. We sat there, watching Shippo, Kirara and Kohaku play with a few village children. I rested my head on my hands as the sun warmed me up.

"How are we going to find someone who can fight demons? Yeah, lots of people fight them, but there aren't very many who can fight well. Heck, I can fight better than most people," I said, my eyes half closed.

"And you aren't that great of a fighter anyway," InuYasha said, smirking a little bit.

"Hey!"

"What? It's true," InuYasha scoffed, leaning back against the hut we sat next to.

I groaned. "So we're stuck. Well, I guess the best thing to do is look for any rumors about great fighters and find them," I said, sighing. We had just finished traveling around, looking for Naraku! Yeah, Sango and Miroku probably wouldn't travel with us, and Shippo may want to stay in the village. I'd get to spend time with InuYasha, but I didn't really want to travel around.

"Excuse me?" The voice of a young boy brought me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see his face. It was Kohaku. "I heard you talking about needing someone to fight demons..."

Later that day, Sango, Kohaku, InuYasha and I sat inside Kaede's hut, discussing what Kohaku wanted to do.

"If the kid wants to fight demons for the rest of his life, he should be able to do it," InuYasha said gruffly, closing his eyes.

I sighed. "It's not that simple, InuYasha. What if he gets hurt? Or worse, he dies?"

"If he's dead, he's dead."

"INUYASHA! How can you be so heartless?" I shouted, glaring at the hanyou. "Besides the fact that Sango will be heartbroken, the demons probably would still be in my era!" I sighed and turned towards Kohaku, who seemed unaffected by the thought of dying.

Kohaku had taken it pretty hard when he got his memories back completely. Sure, he had some while under Naraku's control, but when they came back, it hit full force. Kohaku could hardly take it. How would you feel if you killed off your family (and you loved them)? He also remembered that he had died once, but that didn't effect him as much.

"I'm pretty much dead already," Kohaku said, his eyes towards the floor.

My eyes widened and I looked down at the nearly completed jewel around my neck. "You don't have to be..." I said, my eyes closed.

"What?" Sango asked, leaning forward.

"If we wish for Kohaku to live so he can can destroy demons, the Shikon Jewel might be purified. The wish of someone else's life may be a bit selfish, but if it has a good reason behind it, then it may work as a plausible wish," I explained, almost feeling the jewel pulsing with agreement.

Kohaku nodded and Sango cringed. "Why do you want to do this, though?" Sango asked, her fists clenched on her lap and her head down.

"Please, sister. I need to do this... because I can't go on with my life unless I protect people... And it will allow me to repent for the death of our comrades," Kohaku explained, looking at his sister. "Will you let me do this?"

Sango's face could not be seen, but a few tears fell from her face and onto her lap and hands. "Y-yes... I give my consent."

I felt horrible for Sango; tears started to form in the corner of my eyes. I could hardly imagine what she was going through.

I saw InuYasha look at me out of the corner of my eye; he didn't like it that I was crying. I could tell. I wiped away the tears and said, "We'll have to train him."

"I will," Sango said, the tears gone from her eyes now. She sat up straight, looking determined. She turned her head towards her brother. "Kohaku, I will teach you everything I know!"

- - -

Kohaku's training began the next day. Luckily for Sango, he was her brother, and, like her, had been trained in demon slaying from birth. Heck, he was pretty much ready to fight demons right away, but Sango needed to train him.

Besides, I could tell that she wanted to spend time with her brother. I watched from the sidelines as she re-taught him the basics; her next test for him, though, was to fight her. Though, they used wooden swords.

It was a good fight, even though I could tell Sango was letting up a lot. Experience won in this battle, though, if I fought Kohaku, I would definitely lose.

Sango would not let up at all. She made Kohaku fight her over and over and over. And over.

By the end of the day he was exhausted.

Sango told me that Kohaku would be done with his training as soon as he could defeat a strong demon by himself. I was surprised at what Kohaku had to do. Demons may not look strong, but for a human to kill them by their selves... It's not that easy.

Though Kohaku's last test was to fight a demon. Sango stood outside with everyone, Kohaku standing next to her and InuYasha sniffing the air.

"Do you smell any demons?" Sango asked InuYasha.

InuYasha sniffed the air once more and his eyes opened. "Yeah. There's one that way," InuYasha said, pointing west.

"We're coming for backup, right?" I asked, gripping my bow.

Sango nodded and said, "Yeah. Just in case something goes wrong."

"Well, let's go," Miroku said, letting Shippo jump onto his shoulder.

InuYasha nodded and we set off, towards where he had pointed just a minute before. I held onto InuYasha's shoulders as he sped forward, leading the group to the demon.

"This is Kohaku's fight, OK?" Sango said to everyone, making sure they knew what to do. We nodded, though it was hard to see sometimes because we were all moving so fast and bouncing up and down with the running.

Soon enough we were near enough hear the demon, but we were down wind, so they would not smell us. We stopped and walked over to a good hiding spot to look at the demon.

It was a large, ugly thing with lots of arms and red eyes. He sat in an extremely small clearing and looked to be eating the flesh of a human, since a head started to roll towards us. I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from vomiting. I had seen people decapitated before, but it wasn't pleasant no matter how many times you saw it.

Sango turned to Kohaku and whispered, "All right, Kohaku. This is your chance. You need to go kill that demon."

Kohaku nodded and went out into the clearing, swinging around his chain blade.

Even though the demon wasn't facing him, he could tell Kohaku was there. The demon turned, just in time to see a shiny blade come straight towards his face.

The demon dodged with a yelp of surprise, but quickly regrouped and got ready to fight.

"What a small boy. You dare challenge me?" the demon asked, smirking. His voice was deep and echoed through the trees, making him sound like he had two people speaking at the same time.

Kohaku just glared and sent his chain blade at the demon again, but the demon easily dodged it.

"Is that all you've got?" the demon asked. He laughed heartily and ran towards Kohaku, his claws ready and teeth bared.

It took a lot of self-control for Sango to stay in her hiding spot. The rest of us didn't have as much trouble, but it was still hard. Though, I think that the tree that Sango was holding on to – so she would stay back – was starting to bend. And when she did let go a little later, her fingers left dents in the tree.

Kohaku jumped out of the way and sent his blade toward the demon again, but the demon dodged it.

It was a pretty even battle... until Kohaku tripped. Kohaku tried to get up, but he kept stumbling. There was no way that he was going to stop that demon or dodge it.

Sango let go of the tree and ran out into the clearing, jumping up and attacking the demon with her Hiraikotsu. It was sent back, knocking over a couple smaller trees in the process. Sango jumped forward and sent her boomerang flying, it hitting perfectly and knocking the demon's head off.

She landed and raised up her arm, grabbing the Hiraikotsu as it came back to her. Her eyes were closed and she sighed, but she didn't look disappointed in her brother, just relief that he was safe.

After noticing the dents in the tree left by Sango's hand while she was worried, I walked out from where we were all hiding with my first-aid kit in hand. I knelt by Kohaku and took care of his wounds, which were only a few scratches.

After a few tense moments of silence between Sango and her brother, Kohaku sighed and said bluntly, "I was awful."

Sango looked at him with a look that was impossible to pinpoint an exact emotion in. Then, surpassingly, she smiled. "I wasn't the greatest demon slayer ever when I first fought a demon."

Kohaku looked at her with a raised eyebrow, curious to what she was saying.

"The first time I fought a demon, I fell over from a mixture of nervousness and the weight of my weapon. Then, after narrowly avoiding getting stomped upon by the demon we were trying to kill, I accidentally grabbed the demon's poisonous tail, trying to grab something to prevent me from falling again," Sango said, smirking. "To put it bluntly, I was a wreak."

Kohaku was now smiling at the end of his story, and Miroku and I were chuckling softly.

"At least you two have talent," I said, putting one last bandage on Kohaku's nose. He scratched at the Band-Aid brand bandage and muttered something about the strange object feeling funny. "I can hardly protect myself."

"Eh, that's OK, Kagome. I don't mind having to save you," InuYasha said, his back towards me.

My eyebrows practically flew off my face.

Then I smiled and said, "Thank you, InuYasha."

* * *

Ah, I'm glad this chapter is over. I actually thought it was easier to write.

For my next fanfic, either I'm going to do a remake of my first fic (A Strand of Golden Hair), a Ranma 1/2 fic, or a whole new InuYasha story, obviously having the InuKag paring. I really want to do that Ranma fic, but maybe I can work on all of them at the same time...

**Next Chapter: ** Kohaku obviously needs to train more, but what happens when one of his friends is in danger? Can he save them, or will demon slaying prove to be too much for him?


	23. Kohaku's Troubles

Well, there's only three chapters left. It's kinda sad that this is coming to a close, but I'm glad that it is, too. I've got so many other ideas to work on, so, that's what I'm gonna do.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Kohaku's Troubles**

Kohaku didn't talk at all when the group traveled back to Kaede's village. He was sad and was trying to make himself feel better, but nothing that he did would help. He sighed and tightened his grip around Sango's waist. I looked over at him, wondering how he was feeling.

"It's fine, Kohaku. You can't expect to be good on your first try," Sango said, turning towards him and smiling a bit.

"Yeah... I guess..." Kohaku answered, looking at the ground.

I started thinking, and then I thought about Kohaku's jewel shard. We needed to figure out a way to keep him alive. But we needed to take care of the jewel shard and the jewel, too.

It seemed that InuYasha was thinking about the same thing, because he said to me, "What are we going to do about the jewel?"

"I haven't figured that out, yet," I said, closing my eyes and thinking hard. We needed a selfless wish, one that would help everyone... Or at least some of us... And we needed to decide what the wish would be as soon as possible.

We got to Kaede's village after a little while, but it seemed like a short amount of time if you compared it to our normal travels.

Sitting down in the hut, Sango bandaged Kohaku's wounds and I was deep in thought. It wasn't very much like me, because Miroku and Shippo both asked if something was the matter. Though, it wasn't very strange seeing InuYasha thinking hard.

I opened my eyes and looked over at Kohaku, starting to smirk.

"Are you all right, Kagome?" Shippo asked me, taking a few hesitant steps backwards.

"Kohaku, what do you think about trying to use the Shikon Jewel to keep you alive and give you the ability to fight demons? Would that be fine with you, Sango?" I asked the two demon slayers. I obviously wanted Sango's input, since Kohaku _was_ her brother, and overall it was Kohaku's choice.

The hut was silent.

And it was still silent.

Still goin'.

No one was saying a word.

"WELL?" InuYasha yelled, breaking the silence into tiny little pieces. I was sort of glad that he did that, even though I turned and glared at him.

Sango sighed. "Well, I... I... What do you think, Kohaku?" Sango said, turning to her brother.

Kohaku sat there for a while and then said, "I think it will work. Besides, one jewel shard brought me back to life. Just think what the whole jewel would do! And it might be able to make me a better fighter, too."

Sango nodded. "OK, then. I guess we will do it, then."

I smiled slightly and stood up.

"We might as well do it now, right?" I asked, a little bit nervous. Sango nodded, and Kohaku agreed with Sango. I walked over to Kohaku and knelt down behind him. He let the top of his kimono down slightly and I took my hand to the shard.

I took the shard out. Instantly, Kohaku fell over, dead. I took out the Shikon Jewel and stuck the last shard into it. It glowed and I grasped it in my hand feeling the purity of the jewel being whole once more.

I crawled closer to Kohaku as Sango held him, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. I rested the jewel on his chest (Sango was holding him with his back to the floor) and closed my eyes.

I started to wish. _I wish that Kohaku was alive to destroy demons. I wish that he had the power to slay some of the most powerful demons. He needs to be strong... and alive. I wish that Kohaku could be the greatest demon slayer ever!_ I opened my eyes just in time to see the Jewel in my hands send light through the gaps in my fingers. It glowed and sent a purple light through the whole room. The only people who were able to manage to keep their eyes open were InuYasha and myself.

When the light faded, I stared at my hands. All that was in my hands was a clear marble that looked just like glass. I shifted my gaze to Kohaku and heard Sango gasp when she saw him breathing. He moved and looked up at his sister's face, turning around to face her.

"S-sister?" Kohaku asked hesitantly.

Sango cried and hugged him tightly, rocking back and forth with her head against his. I sat there with tears in my eyes, smiling at them.

InuYasha watched with a small smile, but I could tell he was a bit sad. Was it because he was missing his own mother?

We locked eyes, and he quickly looked away. I turned to see Miroku moving over to Sango, smiling slightly. Shippo walked over to me and gripped my sleeve. I looked down at him and set my hand on his head, wondering how everyone else was taking this.

- - -

Later that day, Kohaku sat on a hill with Sango. Sango later told me that they were catching up. Kohaku learned more about Sango, and also learned more about Miroku.

"Uh... Sister?" Kohaku asked, looking away.

"Yes, Kohaku?" Sango asked, looking at her brother with a smile.

He was playing with a blade of grass. "I... I was wondering... After I make amends for what happened... Can I come live with you and your fiancée? Or at least near you? Because I may have found someone I like and then I may be a lot older or maybe you'll be really old or--"

"Yes, Kohaku. You can come stay with us if you want to. Or live near us. Or whatever you want," Sango said, smiling. "I'll have to check with Miroku, but I'm sure he'll be fine with it."

"Fine? Fine! I'd be more than fine with it," Miroku said, popping up behind Sango.

"AK! Where did you come from?" Sango shouted, obviously startled.

"I was listening in. How can I stay away from such a beautiful woman?" flattered Miroku. Sango smiled sweetly, but quickly her smile changed to surprise and then anger.

"PERVERT!" _SMACK!_

Miroku sat near Sango, rubbing his cheek softly.

"Sister, do you two always act like this?" Kohaku asked, obviously surprised.

"Unfortunately, yes," Sango said, her hand balled up into a fist.

- - -

That night, everyone was quiet. It seemed like everyone was asleep, except for me. I looked around the room, but my gaze stopped on InuYasha... And then I saw his ears.

As quietly as I could, I got up and walked over to InuYasha. I slowly reached out my hand towards his ear, and grabbed it gently. InuYasha twitched, but he didn't wake up, so I started rubbing it. It was so soft and fuzzy! Soon I sat down, but I didn't stop rubbing his ears.

InuYasha's eyes popped open unexpectedly and he looked at me, where I was frozen and blushing.

"Kagome, what the hell are you doing?" InuYasha asked, looking at me with a glare.

"Uh..."

I was saved from answering by a sudden roar and a villager shouting out "IT'S A DEMON!"

I gasped and ran to grab my bow and arrows in the corner of the room while shouting for everyone to get up. Everyone was alert and ready for action after I shouted at them all.

Once outside, we saw one of the ugliest, and tallest demons ever. It's fangs stuck out and went halfway up his face, probably obscuring his vision somewhat. He had red skin and looked like an ogre on crack.

Sango ran out in front of us, her Hiraikotsu ready. She threw it towards the demon, but it was surprisingly fast and moved out of the way just before getting hit. But the boomerang came back and went through the palm of his hand, but not cutting anything off. The demon screamed out in pain and kicked towards Sango, who jumped up and retrieved her boomerang and dodged his kick at the same time. The rest of us were just trying to get over there, seeing as Sango had a head start.

InuYasha pulled out his Tetsusaiga and was just about to attack with his wind scar when the demon managed to grab hold of Sango and hold her out in front of him like a shield.

"You can't attack, InuYasha!" I said as InuYasha stopped mid-attack.

"I know that, wench!" InuYasha shouted, glaring at me.

"Sister!" Kohaku shouted, running over to the demon. His weapon was ready and he threw it at the demon's wrist, managing to cut off the demon's hand. The hand dropped to the ground and Sango pushed her way out while Kohaku jumped up and started to attack the demon. He just started cutting off limbs, one by one, when he finally went for the head.

"DIE!" Kohaku shouted before lopping off the demon's head.

The ogre on crack fell to the ground, as did Kohaku. The young demon slayer landed on top of the ogre, breathing heavily.

"KOHAKU!" Kohaku turned to look at the voice, but was greeted by her sister attacking him with a hug.

I ran over there towards Kohaku and knelt next to them, saying, "You did it, Kohaku! You defeated the demon!"

* * *

Yay! Kohaku did it! w00t!

Anyway, sorry for not finishing the chapter quickly... Eh... -.-;

**Next Chapter: **Kohaku has defeated the demon, but is he ready to leave the comfort of being with his sister?


	24. Kohaku's Beginning

I AM SO BORED. Yeah, I have nothing to say.

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Kohaku's Beginning**

It was never easy for Sango to accept the fact that Kohaku was going to leave her to go fight demons. But that's what demon slayers did. They would slay demons. Hence the name.

After the battle with the demon, InuYasha started to pester me about what I was doing with my hand on his ear before the demon came. I refused to tell him, but he wouldn't give up.

"Tell me!" InuYasha shouted at me as I started to walk into the hut.

"No!" I shouted back.

"It's my ear!" He had a point.

"What of it?"

"I have a right to know what you were doing!"

I glared at him. "I'm not going to tell you!"

"Why were you rubbing my ear?"

I turned around and crossed my arms. I also couldn't help but notice that everyone in the hut was staring at us.

"Kagome, answer me!" InuYasha said, taking a few steps closer to me. Then he lowered the volume of his voice to normal and said, "Why have you been acting so strange?"

I had been acting strange... but only around him. I didn't think he noticed that I was acting like a lovesick puppy. But it was little things, not like the time I got drunk. Sometimes I would stare at him for a while, until he got up and moved or asked me what I was doing. I knew I loved him, but I knew that he loved Kikyo, or at least felt something for her.

"Why have you been acting strange?" InuYasha asked again.

Not turning around at all, I said, "If you can't figure it out, then you don't deserve to know." I didn't really think that. It was for the sake of argument.

"W-what?" InuYasha asked, his eyes widening. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" InuYasha shouted.

My anger had risen to a peak and I turned around and glared at him. "IT MEANS THAT I LO--" I stopped there and put my hand over my mouth and tried to hide the blush that was on my face.

InuYasha just stood there, eyed wide, looking at me carefully. He probably figured it out by now; I practically revealed my feelings for him. I was one and a half words away from telling him, but why couldn't I? But, it doesn't matter. I was sure he had figured it out.

"Kagome?" InuYasha whispered.

"I gotta go!" I shouted, running out of the hut. Our friends sat in the room, looking at InuYasha carefully.

InuYasha turned around to look at everyone, wide eyed and confused.

"Are you going to follow her or not?" Sango yelled, glaring at InuYasha. He turned to look at the door and blinked a couple times.

Miroku stood up and went behind InuYasha. Putting his hands on InuYasha's back, Miroku pushed the hanyou out of the hut and out into the open.

_Finally_, InuYasha got the hint and started to walk towards my scent. He found me sitting next to the Go-Shinboku, my back against it and curled up into a little ball. My arms hid my tearstained face that I rested against my knees.

"...Kagome?" InuYasha said suddenly, surprising me and making my head slowly move up to meet his gaze. He had noticed my tears a while before, I could tell, because right when I saw him he looked like he had no idea what to do. Like he always did whenever I cried. "Eh... Don't... Don't cry!"

I wiped away my tears and turned my head so he couldn't see my face. "What do you want, InuYasha?"

"I want to know what that was about back there," InuYasha said, crossing his arms.

Though my eyes were sad, I smiled and let out the smallest laugh. "You don't realize it, InuYasha?" I asked, closing my eyes.

"Realize what?"

I sighed. "Nothing... Just sit next to me, OK?" I asked, turning and patting the ground where I wanted him to sit.

A bit hesitantly, he walked over to the spot that I suggested for him and sat down. I sighed and leaned against his shoulder and closed my eyes, just relaxing there. InuYasha stiffened at the sudden contact, but relaxed soon enough.

"Kagome?" InuYasha asked.

"Shh... I just want to sit here, OK?" I said, scooting closer to him.

InuYasha didn't answer for a while. A few minutes later, though, he replied with a simple, "OK."

- - -

Kohaku trained tirelessly that day, and the next. It seemed like he was unstoppable. Sango was proud. She watched him, and when Kohaku asked, she would train with him. He still couldn't beat his sister, but he was getting better.

The third day after Kohaku defeated the ogre demon, the young demon slayer went into the woods for a walk. He had been training really hard, I even watched; he planned to be out for a while, so he brought a snack with him. While in the woods, he decided to go off the path and explore a bit. He knew that there were demons, but he decided he could handle them.

Soon, he found a small cave that served as a den. Kohaku took a few steps inside the cave, but was stopped by a sudden growling. As soon as his eyes adjusted, he saw inside a mother wolf and her pups. Kohaku backed away and turned around, but saw what the mother wolf was really growling at. A large bear demon blocked Kohaku's path.

I thought it was a good thing that demon slayers almost never were without their weapons, because Kohaku was gonna need his! Kohaku readied himself and his weapon. The demon ran towards him, but Kohaku stopped it by attacking with his chain blade. The demon roared in pain, but he was stopped by a quick blow from Kohaku.

The demon fell over, dead as a doornail. I wish that I could do that.

Kohaku turned around and saw the mother wolf standing there, her tail wagging at him. Kohaku took a few steps forward, holding out his hand for the wolf mother to sniff. Instead of sniffing the hand, she licked it, and led him to her pups. I also wish that I could have seen those puppies.

When he decided it was time to leave, Kohaku took out his food and gave some to the mother wolf. While he was leaving, he felt like someone was following him. He turned around and saw one of the puppies. It was gray with a white belly.

"Go home. Your mother will miss you," Kohaku said, smiling. Kohaku turned around and started walking back to the trail that he had wandered from. Glancing back, he noticed the puppy was still following him.

"Ugh. Do you want me to bring you back to your mother?" Kohaku asked.

Suddenly, the puppy grew four times it's size. "AGH! You're like Kirara!"

The demon puppy jumped over Kohaku's head and attacked a small demon that had been sneaking up behind Kohaku.

"Wow... You saved me," Kohaku said, walking over to the wolf and petting it on it's head.

"Are you going to follow me?" Kohaku asked. It seemed to make a strange noise in approval. "Well, then, I guess I have to give you a name..."

Kohaku stood there for a while, looking up at the sky. Then he looked down at the pup (who had now transformed back) and said, "How about Sekiei?" The demon wagged his tail in approval and Kohaku picked up the pup and led them both back home.

- - -

A few days later we all said our farewells to Kohaku, who had decided it was time for him to go. Sango looked very sad, but what do you expect? I was sure that she was worried sick, and he hadn't even left her sight yet.

Sekiei followed Kohaku all the way out of the village, and they started traveling. I knew that they were making their own history.

I stood next to Sango as we saw them both leave our sights. "He's going to do just fine, Sango," I said, smiling.

"I know. But I'm going to worry about him anyway."

* * *

A short chapter, but it's a chapter. The next chapter is the last one, and I think it will be one of my favorites.

**Next Chapter: **Kagome's going to go back to her time to see if everything is all right. Yeah, she's pretty sure that it's back to normal, but you can't be too sure about these things! And besides, if it isn't back to normal, then that means a sequel!


	25. InuYasha's Words

This is the last chapter. I hope you're all ready. My heart's beating in anticipation to write this!

* * *

**A Change in Our Future**

**Chapter Twenty-Five: InuYasha's Words  
**

Even though InuYasha was clueless, I still avoided answering the questions that he threw at me. He was asking me about the other day. When I almost confessed my feelings for him. Though, now that I think back on it, I think he was just wondering if he was right. Maybe he had figured it out, and maybe he had known what I was feeling.

I couldn't tell you if I had decided to tell InuYasha how I felt. I didn't really choose to do anything. I just did whatever came naturally. Though, what is natural?

Before bounding down the well to get back home, I crouched next to it, gripping the sides that seemed if I let go, I would fall to my demise. I peered over the edge of the well, watching the bottom like it was supposed to do something, like produce a baby.

"Kagome?"

"AHHHH!" I screamed, falling back. I looked up and saw InuYasha looking down. He leaned over me, his head upside down from my point of view. His white hair slowly fell over his shoulders and formed a sheet of hair to hide my face.

"Man, you're a klutz," InuYasha said, glaring down at me.

"Did you ever consider the fact that you may have surprised me?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"No; I don't really care."

"Hmph!" I pushed myself up and then stood, brushing all the dirt off my body. InuYasha came up behind me and started brushing off my back, which surprised me.

"InuYasha?"

"I thought you might need some help, wench." InuYasha finished and backed off.

"Thanks," I said softly.

I turned my attention to the well in front of me. I breathed in. Breathed out... Repeat.

"Just GO!" InuYasha said, pushing me in.

He followed after me and when he jumped out of the well, I shouted at him, "SIT, SIT, SIT!"

"OW! OW! OW!"

I climbed out of the well and went to the doors to go outside.

"Well, the moment of truth," I said to myself, bracing myself for anything. I slid the doors open, shining light into the room. I put a hand over my eyes to shield them from the strong sunlight, and I walked out of the well house.

"I don't smell anything suspicous," InuYasha said.

I smiled and started to walk to my house. I glanced towards the street and saw-- Oh, crap.

I turned to InuYasha and said, "InuYasha! Go inside and go get a hat!"

"Why?" InuYasha asked.

"My friends are coming!" InuYasha sighed and walked inside, obviously ticked.

I stood there, watching as InuYasha went inside. Then, I was greeted by my friends.

"Hey, Kagome!" Eri said, waving.

"Hi..." I said, distracted.

"How're you?"

"Oh, fine."

"Are you sure you should be out of bed?" Yuka asked.

"I'm OK right now."

"That's good," Ayumi said, rocking back and forth on her feet.

"Do you guys want to come inside?" I asked, leading them towards the house.

- - -

The girls left after a while, and InuYasha was really glad that they were gone. He said that they got annoying. Well, to someone not used to them, I guess they could be.

InuYasha and I sat in the middle of the room, across from each other. We were both relaxing from entertaining my guests, and they always asked InuYasha tons of questions.

"I'm glad that that's over with," I said, rubbing my shoulder.

"Yeah," InuYasha said, starting to get up.

"Buyo, get back here!" shouted my little brother. Sota barged into the room, chasing Buyo, and he knocked into InuYasha. He quickly left, not getting any closer to catching that cat.

InuYasha, not managing to regain his balance, fell forward and knocked me over.

"Ow..." I complained, slightly rubbing the back of my head. I opened my eyes and saw InuYasha slowly getting up, a huge blush on his face. I started blushing, too, and cleared my throat.

"I'm sorry!" InuYasha said, pushing himself up higher, but not moving away from the akward position we were in. He looked worried and surprised. I didn't have much room to push myself up at all.

"InuYasha... The other day, when I wouldn't answer your questions..."

InuYasha somehow looked even more surprised.

"I... I was going to say..."

I played with my fingers and looked anywhere other than InuYasha's face.

"I..."

My gaze moved to InuYasha's eyes, which were locked with my own.

"I love you."

I gasped. Those weren't my words. They were...

InuYasha said that to _me_?

I looked at him with wide eyes and said to him, "I love you, too."

Then, he kissed me.

_Fin_

* * *

I want to thank everyone who reviewed and read my story. This was really enjoyable to write. And I hope that I can see your reviews in my future (or past) stories! 

I want to thank Maki Totakiyami for sticking with me and being a great e-mail buddy throughout most of my stories. And for reviewing. Can't forget the reviews. She reviewed for EVERY CHAPTER. Also, the only one who did.

I also want to thank an anonymous reviewer by the name of Sandwich, since she is my best friend, and reviewed whenever I reminded her. Actually, she didn't really do anything for this story, but she helped a lot with my last series, the Kay and Michelle series.

Then there's Elemental Alchemist, who has reviewed so much, and I'm pretty sure has stuck with me for quite a few stories!

All my regular reviewers, I want to thank you. I LOVE YOU ALL.

And then, all my irregular reviewers, I love you too.

This story took a lot of different turns. Though, in the beginning, when you read about Kane's death, did you really expect Kohaku to be the reason that the future is saved? It still makes me wonder.

Well...

I LOVE YOU! And as Miroku would say: Will you bear my children?


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